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Wisconsin's partisan gerrymandering struck down by court
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/23/wisconsins-gerrymander-being-struck-down-should-scare-republicans-nationwide/?utm_term=.ccf92cfb0bbdThis should scare the GOP because it was not a Voting Rights case. Courts have ruled that racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional, but partisan gerrymandering is ok. But the courts just found that the gerrymandering in Wisconsin is so extreme, it violates the Constitution's promise of equal protections. FINALLY!
This was why the decision Monday by the federal District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin was so significant. The court found that the Republican-held legislature had intentionally manipulated district lines to favor Republican candidates. And that manipulation was so extreme, it found, that it violated the “one person, one vote” principle and the Democratic voters’ rights to fair representation required by the Constitution's promises of equal protection.
In short, by drawing district lines that pack Democrats into a small number of districts or spread them in small numbers across many districts, the court ruled that a Republican legislature was able to gain narrow victories in a disproportionately large number of districts.
In short, by drawing district lines that pack Democrats into a small number of districts or spread them in small numbers across many districts, the court ruled that a Republican legislature was able to gain narrow victories in a disproportionately large number of districts.
What this case was able to do differently was to propose a mathematical formula to determine if partisan gerrymandering is so extreme that it must be an intentional effort by a political party to disenfranchise voters of the other party, regardless of race. And this is HUGE. In the past, race was the only measure. But with the advent of computers and big data, experts can draw partisan lines with surgical precision, regardless of a voter's race.
The plaintiffs in this case proposed such a measurement, dubbed the “efficiency gap” by professors Nicholas Stephanopoulos of the University of Chicago Law School and Eric McGhee of the Public Policy Institute of California.
Essentially, the efficiency gap compares the number of one party’s votes that are, to use the professors’ term, “wasted,” compared to the other’s. Consider a legislative district where the Republican candidate received 1,000 votes and the Democrat got 700. Here, 299 Republican votes are wasted — the outcome of the election would have been the same whether the Republicans earned 701 votes or 1,000. Similarly, 700 Democratic votes are wasted, as the result wouldn’t change if the Democrats had received no votes at all.
The election outcome in that district alone certainly wouldn’t be considered unfair. But if a similar pattern appears across the state — more Democratic than Republican votes being wasted — it’s possible the map was drawn to systemically favor Republican candidates. If far more Democratic votes are “wasted” than Republican, Republicans could earn significantly more seats than Democrats, even if they had similar vote totals. In other words, Democrats would be less efficient at turning their votes into legislative seats — hence the term “efficiency gap.”
Essentially, the efficiency gap compares the number of one party’s votes that are, to use the professors’ term, “wasted,” compared to the other’s. Consider a legislative district where the Republican candidate received 1,000 votes and the Democrat got 700. Here, 299 Republican votes are wasted — the outcome of the election would have been the same whether the Republicans earned 701 votes or 1,000. Similarly, 700 Democratic votes are wasted, as the result wouldn’t change if the Democrats had received no votes at all.
The election outcome in that district alone certainly wouldn’t be considered unfair. But if a similar pattern appears across the state — more Democratic than Republican votes being wasted — it’s possible the map was drawn to systemically favor Republican candidates. If far more Democratic votes are “wasted” than Republican, Republicans could earn significantly more seats than Democrats, even if they had similar vote totals. In other words, Democrats would be less efficient at turning their votes into legislative seats — hence the term “efficiency gap.”
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It's a great read!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/23/wisconsins-gerrymander-being-struck-down-should-scare-republicans-nationwide/?utm_term=.ccf92cfb0bbd
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