Gerrymandering, in the United States, is a policy issue that has been existence for decades. Gerrymandering involves the marking of boundaries in a way that causes a disadvantage to another party during elections. This is done with the aim of strengthening the political interests of a particular party within a specific district. Gerrymandering is an issue that has continued to distort the United States democracy and it has divided the electorate during each election.
Since the beginning of this issue, gerrymandering has been synonymous with the Republicans. This is because they have always wanted to change the voting districts in ways that favor their representation in Congress and in a way that favors their presidential candidate. Since 1812, each census conducted has resulted to the redrawing of boundaries, which attracts political players. This, in turn, has always caused unequal influence within the Congress and the Democrats have always been at a disadvantage. This is because legislators were always picking who their constituents would be, as a result of the boundaries. California politics, for example, are the worst affected by this issue due to its ever-increasing population.
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However, some people feel that gerrymandering is important since it can have positive policy implications. This is because, in a state like California, for example, each restructure within the boundaries has an effect on the number of Republicans or Democrats in the Senate. Such issues, if utilized well, can help change policies on issues such as racism or taxes. On the other hand, gerrymandering has always been viewed as a negative practice since it makes the electorate seem ornamental in the sense that their opinion is not required during the formation of these boundaries. Carving out new boundaries, after each census, ensures party control as opposed to the electorate control within a certain region, which gives one party an advantage over the other in Senate. At the end of it all, gerrymandering brings about unequal representation of the electorate causing some communities, such as the Latinos, to feel that they have no say in the matters of the United States.
Finally, gerrymandering can be resolved by setting up independent commissions to foresee the restructuring of boundaries as opposed to allowing politicians do it. Also, algorithms can be used during boundary creation so as to prevent the human manipulation in the exercise (Chen & Cottrell, 2016) . This will ensure fairness within the exercise. These solutions will ensure that the electorate have the absolute power in electing their leaders.
References
(2018). Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/01/this-is-the-best-explanation-of-gerrymandering-you-will-ever-see/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c34d2c677419
Chen, J., & Cottrell, D. (2016). Evaluating partisan gains from Congressional gerrymandering: Using computer simulations to estimate the effect of gerrymandering in the U.S. House. Electoral Studies , 44 , 329-340. doi: 10.1016/j.electstud.2016.06.014
Durst, N. (2018). Racial Gerrymandering of Municipal Borders: Direct Democracy, Participatory Democracy, and Voting Rights in the United States. Annals Of The American Association Of Geographers , 108 (4), 938-954. doi: 10.1080/24694452.2017.1403880
