Meanwhile a national census was conducted and due to a large population growth, the census committee advised the Council of Elders and Priestesses to redraw its electoral boundaries. This revealed the hot potato that is Gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering is the drawing of political boundaries to give a certain political party a numeric advantage over an opposing party.
It is also the intentional changing of electoral boundaries for the benefit of a few political parties.
*The design of Gerrymandering preserves either majorities or minorities political parties.
*The long term effect of Gerrymandering is the preservation of cynicism and non participation by the voters.
*It properly undermines the democratic rights of citizens to access of the equal vote.
The Council of Elders and Priestesses hire Everyone has a Price Company to figure out the new electoral boundaries after the population census was done. The Everyone Has a Price Company decides to approach Wake Up Now Party as they have a majority of seats in parliament already before the next electoral cycle. The Everyone Has a Price Company offers a deal to the Wake Up Now Party. This deal involves a price in exchange of a landslide election victory by redrawing the electoral boundaries in favour of the Wake Up Now Party.
Here are some Gerrymandering Examples.
In a constituency of 1000 people:
700 of them belong to Wake Up Now Party
300 of them belong to Hermit United Party
By luck they all live in even grids with Wake Up Now supporters on one side of the constituency and Hermits Unites supporters on the other side.
This constituency can be divided into 7 Districts. Each District will send 1 representative to the Big House to represent the people.
Ideally in this example, the representation aims to be proportional:
If 70% of residents are for Wake Up Now
Then 30% of residents are for Hermits United
Those 7 seats can be divided up the same way. Since the citizens live in a neatly ordered grid, its easy to draw 7 lengthy Districts. 3 Districts for Hermits United and 7 Districts for Wake Up Now.
This is a
Perfectly Proportional Representation
In the second example of Gerrymandering, the Wake Up Now Party controls the state government and they decide how the electoral lines are drawn. Rather than draw Districts Vertically they draw them Horizontally so in each District they are:
7 Wake Up Now and 3 Hermits United
Since the majority is Wake Up Now in each constituency, then each District elects a Wake Up Now candidate to the Big House. The Wake Up Now party wins 5 seats and the Hermits United get 0 seats.
This is a Compact But Unfair Representation
In the third example of Gerrymandering the boot has changed foot, the Hermits United Party now controls the state government. The Hermits United know they are at a numeric disadvantage and with creative Boundary Drawing they can slice the Wake Up Now population so they have a majority in 2 Districts as opposed to 7 Districts. This means that even though Hermits United make up 30% of the constituency population, they now win 60% of the constituency seats.
This is Neither Compact Nor Fair Representation
Sources:
CGP Grey. Gerrymandering Explained. July 12, 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mky11UJb9AY&index=8&list=PLqs5ohhass_QhOSkrNqPFEAOv5fBzTvWv
Christopher Ingraham. This is the best explanation of gerrymandering you will ever see. March 1,2015.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/01/this-is-the-best-explanation-of-gerrymandering-you-will-ever-see/
Laura Moser. This is how gerrymandering works. December 18, 2017.
www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/12/18/this-is-how-gerrymandering-works/
