Content Categorized with "Redistricting"

31 - 35 of 35 results

  • Gerrymandering in Michigan and the Super District Remedy

    Controversies over redistricting in Michigan provide the latest evidence of the failure of winner-take-all, single member district rules. Winner-take-all elections inevitably represent many voters poorly and tempt partisans to gerrymander outcomes. The 1967 law mandating that states use them should be repealed so that states like Michigan can explore “super district” form of proportional voting to increase voter choice and fair outcomes.

    FairVote's example of how super districts would work in Michigan show that every district easily can be made to be competitive and guarantee fair representation.

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  • Curing Our Democracy Part II: The Redistricting Connection and the Pitfalls of the District-Based Electoral Vote System

    Part II: The Redistricting Connection and the Pitfalls of the District-Based Electoral Vote System

    This Part explores the interaction between redistricting and electoral vote allocation in Nebraska and Maine, demonstrating the negative consequences and offering solutions to these problems. See Part I for an introduction and discussion about the winner-take-all rule for allocating electoral votes.

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  • Curing Our Democracy Part I: Nebraska's Electoral Vote Debate and the Pitfalls of the Winner-Take-All Rule

    Part I: Nebraska's Electoral Vote Debate and the Pitfalls of the Winner-Take-All Rule

    If put on the spot, one may have difficulty articulating similarities between the states of Nebraska and Maine: the former, corn-yielding and reliably Republican; the latter, fish-producing and predominately Democratic. Yet Maine and Nebraska are the only states in the Union that presently split presidential electoral votes by congressional district rather than allocating all electoral votes to the statewide winner. In doing so, Nebraska and Maine are useful in diagnosing two conditions that plague our democracy: the current systems of partisan redistricting and presidential electoral vote allocation.

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  • Tracking and Reforming Redistricting

    The process of redistricting is highly partisan and often comes at the expense of voters. FairVote has developed a number of new resources regarding redistricting, including:

    • Glossary - An A to Z guide to terms and definitions
    • Litigation - A summary of ongoing lawsuits to redistricting plans and procedures throughout the country
    • Reform Legislation - A report on proposed laws in all fifty states to improve redistricting processes
    • Resource List - A guide and review of the best redistricting resources from around the web
    • News - A compilation of tweets to news stories and opinion by state
    • Alternative Approaches - Drawings of proposed "super districts" for all states used for proportional voting systems
    • Additional Links - FairVote also contributes to Endgerrymandering.com and tweets current redistricting news

     

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  • FairVote's Redistricting Resources

    With the completion of the 2010 Census, state legislatures are now in the process of the decennial redrawing of congressional, state, and local electoral districts. The process of creating new boundary lines is highly partisan and often comes at the expense of voters. By gerrymandering districts, legislators and their political allies use redistricting to choose their voters instead of giving voters the opportunity to choose them. FairVote provides a number of resources and reports about the redistricting process, and potential improvements to the current system.


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