The biggest issue with our country - GERRYMANDERING [View all]

[LynneSin]

Gerrymandering is the reason our country is in this mess. Every 10 years, after the census, Congressional seats are re-aligned for the states and new congressional districts are drawn. For most states (I think there are a few exceptions) they State Government is allowed to create the congressional districts.

I wrote this post back after the 2012 district to highlight just how bad Gerrymandering is. These were the election returns in Pennsylvania, a moderate state that had been heading blue but had a Tea Party takeover in 2010.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021956300

President:
Obama (D): 2.93 million votes
Romney (R): 2.65 million votes

Senate:
Casey (D): 2.94 million votes
Smith (R): 2.45 million votes

Aud General:
Depasquale (D): 2.73 million votes
Maher (R): 2.55 million votes

Attorney General:
Kane (D): 3.13 million votes
Freed (R): 2.31 million votes

Treasurer:
McCord (D): 2.87 million votes
Vaughn (R): 2.41 million votes

Those were the 5 statewide races that PA voters voted on in 2012. Just looking at those 5 elections it was a day of champions for Democrats. Even with all the shenanigans the Republicans tried to do with that heinous voter ID bill, Democrats still won with strong returns for all the state wide votes.

And yet out of 18 house seats the democrats only won FIVE of them. BUt look at the overall vote for PA House:

All Democrat House Candidates: 2.72 million 2otes
All Republican House Candidates: 2.65 million votes

It's not just Pennsylvania - it's all states and yes some of the states, like California, it's done in favor of the Democrats. However the majority of the Gerrymandering issues are in GOP states.

I've been doing more reading this year and far less posting and the one thing I have found common across the intertubes is this - We need to vote these bums out in 2014.

Well here's the issue - we can't.

It's just nearly impossible especially for the US House. The GOP has done enough Gerrymandering out there that will ensure that they keep the US House in their control for a long long time even if the majority of the people are voting Democrat. And that means we're going to see more and more bickering like the current Government shutdown.

In the end it's not the people that are being represented. Clearly in 2012 Pennsylvanians wanted to let Democrats run things but Gerrymandering forced them to elect GOP for 13 of their 18 Congressional seats. Texas is a mess and thanks to the Supreme Court the rest of the South will soon fix their congressional seats to ensure even less democrats are elected to house seats.

We need to fix Gerrymandering. There are some states out west that now Gerrymander to Bi-partisan committees but in a nutshell if you live in a state with more than one US House member there's a good chance your state is Gerrymandered. And if your state is Gerrymandered there's a good chance you're stuck with your US House member until he/she dies, retires or gets caught in a massive scandal (although that hasn't stopped Michelle Bachmann from getting re-elected).

End Gerrymandering - let the people voice who they want as their elected officials by power of the vote!