How to Rig Elections - by Spencer Overton

[kpete]

How to Rig Elections
by Spencer Overton, Wed Jul 26, 2006 at 11:55:10 PM EST

The following ideas are from the first chapter of the book Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression.

...................

In September 2001 California lawmakers unveiled the new maps for U.S. House, State Senate, and State Assembly. In order to reach the two-thirds vote needed to immunize them from referendum challenge, Democrats struck a deal with Republicans. The new maps would protect almost all Republican and Democratic incumbents. Democrats would maintain their majority, but Republicans would not lose any additional seats.

"The congressional lines . . . are part of a private deal cut by Karl Rove (President Bush's chief political adviser) and the Democrats," Republican redistricting expert Tony Quinn told the Copley News Service. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Bush White House pushed to maintain the status quo, even though it favored Democrats, in order to preserve Republican control of Congress.

Incumbents and parties would not only hang on to their existing seats, but Berman's new plan would make them safer from discontented voters. In 2000 Democrat Michael Case made a strong but ultimately unsuccessful run against Republican U.S. House incumbent Elton Gallegly in a district where registered Democrats accounted for 40% of the voters and registered Republicans a percentage point less. But Case decided not to make another run in 2002 after redistricting inflated registered Republicans to 46% and deflated registered Democrats to 35% of the districts' voters.

In the November 2002 election, Michael Berman's handiwork paid off. One hundred percent of the incumbents who ran won. The padding of districts also ensured that most races were not close. The average incumbent won with 69% of the vote.

more at:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/7/26/235511/793

[mod mom]

1. kick.

[European Socialist]

2. Maybe this is why Dems don't Squawk about stolen elections?

They don't want voters to find out about other shady stuff.

[Pokey Anderson]

3. thanks for this info.

Yes, a few analysts have pointed me to the fact that local politicos have as their Numero Uno goal saving their own seat in office. They will screw the state and national goals, and the democracy in order to achieve their own butt-saving incumbency.

This book was published in June, and I hadn't heard of it.

Spencer Overton's bio says he is a law prof at George Washington in DC, and served on the Carter-Baker commission (I'm not sure that is a good thing....).

He is African-American. Looks like his working title was:

The Ghost of Jim Crow: The Unfinished Struggle for Voting Rights in America.

I like that title better. I do think a lot of our election problems have arisen from the soil of racist practices of slavery and Reconstruction, where whites were terrified that the freed slaves would outnumber them, so resorted to a myriad of undemocratic methods to ensure that the black vote would be minimized or thwarted. We are still living with that bankrupt legacy.

[OnTheOtherHand]

4. he dissented from the voter ID recommendation

http://www.carterbakerdissent.com/

[Land Shark]

5. Thanks for this link