I live in Illinois and can attest to the fact that Gerrymandering has resulted in losing Republican seats. The state has supermajority of democrats in all offices. The problem with supermajorities is that there is nothing to prevent them from doing whatever they want. There are no checks and balances. We need strong representation for both parties, for all voters. I know it’s also happening in Red states. I’m against Gerrymandering regardless of who benefits. It’s just wrong and hurts democracy.
That’s right, voters deserve multiple legit choices. Because people in both parties can be corrupt, bad for their constituents, etc. (Just look at Bob Menendez and George Santos.)
Right. Wouldn’t it be awful if Democratic gerrymandering resulted in more Dems being n Congress who would put the teeth back in the Voting Rights Act, restore a woman’s right to choose, get rid of unlimited and dark money in politics and reform our immigration system?
I'm not sure I share your confidence that a supermajority would be an unmitigated good for one party but not the other. There is nothing innate to Democrats that would prevent the unchecked balance of power from being a corrupting influence. Democrats have had majorities before and they have not passed term limits, or drafted campaign finance reform, or meaningfully addressed the stock holdings of their members.
I do want every single one of the reforms that you mention. But the weapons we wield can just as easily be used against us, and if gerrymandering gets us there then gerrymandering can also take us all the way back (and further).
Well, I don’t think I said anything about “unmitigated good” or supermajorities but I agree with your sentiments. In a perfect, theoretical world that Sharon likes to envision, all sides would be represented fairly and none would be corruptible. But we don’t live in a perfect world. Today’s Democratic Party (along with the Independents who caucus with them) almost functions as a two-party system because they’re willing to compromise (latest example, bipartisan border bill) and to get anything done they need to make a very wide range of people happy or at least be willing to vote for whatever bill, from Joe Manchin on the right to Bernie Sanders and AOC on the left. All the different constituencies make it messy but that’s the way governing is. They got a lot done under Biden, which was amazing but the Senate fillibuster will trump razor thin majorities in the House and/or the Senate every time. Campaign finance reform, voting rights and electoral college reform, immigration reform, reproductive rights, all of it dies at the hands of the Senate fillibuster. All I’m trying to say is, if the Supreme Court of the United States has decreed that partisan gerrymandering is okay with them and we’re all stuck with it for now, I’d rather it be used for good rather than ill.
Yes, same but I'm in a red state. I have little representation. There's so much corruption in our state government. They do what they want. The Governor has locked (physically locked) the opposing party out of meetings. If we vote for something they don't approve of, they say we were ill informed, and didn't understand what we were voting for, and throw it out. At one point we passed and anti-corruption bill, and they tossed that out. 🤦 One of my favorites this sessions was when they voted against a school lunch bill, saying basically that they didn't want people to get used to getting things and creating an expectation of dependence. Then they dismissed for lunch where they have food provided for them for free for them entirety of the legislative session. Super majorities stink, no matter which party is in control.
Nicholas Kristoff wrote a NYT opinion piece a couple months ago discussing how the Democratic party is different on the West Coast than on the East Coast (specifically New England, where I live) and one of the reasons he cited was that Democrats on the West Coast are much more likely to have a super-majority. Here in New England, despite what the colors on our electoral map might say, politics are a lot nearer to 'purple' in states like NH and ME, largely because neither party can get an overwhelming majority (not to say that gerrymandering isn't an issue - NH is grappling with this at the moment). It's also true that Republicans in New England tend to be out-of-step with many of their party members in states where the GOP has a supermajority (conservatism here is far less religious and far more libertarian), and both parties must engage in consensus building if they want to get anything meaningfully accomplished. Checks and balances are essential for a functional democracy!
Agreed! My buddy is from Chicago, and he regularly talks about the Democratic supermajority in the city/state. And the long history of corruption there is impressive (in a bad way). We absolutely need more than one voice in any polity.
In Utah, even with our citizen vote to have an independent commission draw the maps, the legislature ignored it and drew their own anyway. The state Supreme Court just struck that down, so I’m hoping things will change now.
It’s been such an emotional rollercoaster over the years - the joy when the measure was passed, the anger and demoralization when the legislation ignored it. I’m so, so glad the UT Supreme Court overruled it, but it remains to be seen how our legislature will try to walk themselves around it this time…
I came here to say the same thing. The republican supermajority will find away around it or they will gut the referendum like they did with the medical marijuana referendum.
I'm in Utah, too. Thanks to all of you who are sharing about our experience. Our independent commission worked hard to create fair maps. There was a lot of citizen input -- including mine. And then our legislature just threw away all that work, ignored the will of the people. i am hoping it can be fixed, but that can't happen until enough Utahns realize that we need to vote for those who will represent us, not just their own interests.
For those curious about the gerrymandering in your specific state, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project gives each state a scorecard and you can click through to read about your state: https://gerrymander.princeton.edu/
They got Utah wrong. There is definitely a Republican advantage here. And the leg. threw out the maps prepared by our independent commission and heavily gerrymandered the state.
Yes, I believe some of the data may be outdated. Patricia mentioned below that Indiana has a gerrymandering problem: according to this map (2021 data) they get an A rating, but news stories from within the past year document a significant change in their electoral maps.
The Supreme Court's 2019 decision on partisan gerrymandering seems to be filtering down to the states and lower courts. It was cited in Indiana's legal battle over gerrymandering, and it is being cited in my neighboring state (NH) in their attempts to redraw the maps as well.
I live in Colorado and am so thankful that we have an independent commission that draws the maps! We recently went through a redistricting and the results were interesting. There were people that were unhappy but I'm glad that an independent commission drew the lines not our politicians!
Texas victim here. My representative lives about 200 miles from me. It would be so nice to be represented by someone who understood the needs of my community. Right now, it would be impossible because no one could ever get elected. It’s incredibly frustrating and demoralizing.
I'm in Texas,too, and I feel the same way. When I first read Sharon's "principle over party" mantra, I felt so SEEN. I had never put it that way before then, but that's exactly how I've always voted: research each candidate and determine who most closely aligns with my values, then vote for individuals, rehardless of party affiliation. (Except in primaries, of course.) Over the course of a lifetime, that has made me a very purple voter. But when I vote blue, I absolutely feel like I'm throwing my vote away in this state. (That will never stop me, though. I ALWAYS vote, even when the only thing on the ballot is a school board member or something.) It's just SOOOO frustrating, and I know so many people who feel the same. I live in Montgomery County, which likes to boast that it's the "reddest county in Texas." But the more I talk to people, the more I don't think that's entirely true. I just don't know the way out of the R super majority and ridiculous gerrymandering in this state.
It's so interesting to read your post in comparison to Emily's (above). She lives in a relatively small state compared to Texas, and the culture sounds very different.
Funny enough, while a born and raised New Englander, I did live in Texas from 2012 to 2018 and the politics were a *shock* to my system. First time in my life that I went to the ballot box and was given the option to just check 'R' or 'D' and have the WHOLE ballot filled out for one party. I'd also never felt so much that my vote was worth only a fraction of what it should be because our districts were so gerrymandered, and what I thought I knew of Republicans in New England was a far cry from the ones in Texas, who openly wanted a bigger and more powerful government (with *less* local control) so long as it served them. They didn't face any true opposition that could upturn their power, and they knew it.
Even funnier is that, while I was in Texas, Maine elected our own angry populist in Paul LePage. Because Maine has a long history of Independents and other third party candidates, LePage won his first race with only 37% of the vote, giving him the distinction of being one of the reasons Maine ultimately embraced Ranked Choice Voting in 2016. It's allowed us to continue to have multi-party races while supporting consensus among voters. Maine, like every state, is deeply flawed and a far cry from perfect, but my civic engagement has become a lot more satisfying since I moved back home. I do love and support all of my friends in Texas who are continuing on in their much harder effort to make things better.
I live in Michigan and am proud that I signed the petition to place drawing voting districts in the hands of an independent commission rather than in the hands of politicians. We now have a fairer way of allowing citizens to participate in government. Hope OH is successful in their efforts!
I agree! I would have been thrilled for Jeff Jackson to remain in Congress, even though I'm not in his district. His transparency is so refreshing and needed! But when you get drawn out of your district.... You run for AG! So now I will get to vote for him, and I'm grateful that he will continue to serve North Carolina.
I am frustrated as well!! But, I can’t see it changing with the make up of our General Assembly, mostly old, out of touch, white males. 😩
And Jeff Jackson is amazing. Love his candid explanations on social media of what is actually happening in the day-to-day workings of Congress. Will vote for him as NC Attorney General and I would love to live long enough to see him elected President!!
I live in Brentwood TN. My district is heavily gerrymandered. My house of rep is Andy Ogles, who lives in a different county than me, and this district spans his county (Maury), my county (Williamson) and a section of Nashville (Davidson County) that includes the Covenant School. He is the rep that sent a Christmas card with his entire family holding AR-15's several years ago. He has a challenger this election cycle, but I cannot imagine she will win. My district votes red down the line regardless of candidate. UGH
I’m in TN too and what’s worse is that the state legislature would never allow a ballot initiative like the one that voters will vote on in Ohio. Citizens cannot collect signatures for a petition for a ballot measure. It can only be on the ballot if the legislature says so, which is why we will never be able to vote on this or on whether a woman is mandated to carry and give birth to her rapist’s baby (which currently, she is).
Oh wow. Have you listened to the podcast series called "Supermajority" (from Embedded)? It follows three Covenant moms and their engagement with the TN legislature.
GA isn’t as bad as some, and I think my district is fairly well drawn, but voters do not decide what initiatives are on the ballot.
That is incredibly frustrating because there are some issues that I’d love to be able to vote on individually. I know there are some laws that would be passed if the entire population voted vs the representatives, but it can’t happen under our current system.
One of the few good things about living in Missouri is we do have the ballot initiative. One of the many bad things is, just because we vote and pass laws, doesn’t mean our supermajority legislators will fund/enforce them. We voted to expand Medicaid, but our lawmakers initially refused to fund it. Missouri is the puppy mill capital of the country. We voted to end the practice. Our lawmakers ignore our will and do not enforce the ban. We needed 170K signatures to put abortion on the ballot. We collected 280K. We are waiting to see if our SOS will certify them. He’s delayed the process with illegal ballot language that a judge struck and re-wrote, so we cannot trust him. If it is on the ballot, and passes, it depends on who wins AG, because the incumbent has vowed not to enforce it. Missouri’s had a super majority party for 20 years. It does not represent the will of the people. This past session, the goal of that party was to make the initiative petition harder to use so that we cannot make the laws the people want. The super minority party heroically fought back with a historic filibuster that saved our right to self-govern. Democracy is hard and exhausting work. I am grateful we can share our experiences and encourage each other in this work, because failure is not an option.
Missouri and South Dakota are like crazy Republican corruption twins. Our pro choice stuff was certified, but it keeps getting dragged into court by this "right to life" group. Coincidentally, that group is led by a state legislator, who also coincidentally managed to pass "emergency" legislation this past session to allow people to remove their signatures from petitions. 🙄 That didn't end up working out for him. We had so many more signatures on the petition then we needed and hardly anyone filled out his form to say they wanted their signature removed. So now they've switched tactics to say they were falsely collecting signatures. All this because they are afraid of this passing and restoring Roe in our state.
True story! They will do anything, legal or otherwise. They are just as happy to do illegal things, as long as it delays or denies our right to self-govern. In MO, the attempt to get people to remove their signatures was led by and funded by the Catholic Church. They didn’t even try to hide it. They wrote their name all over it. They were proud of their work to impose their religious beliefs on the entire state.
Also in Missouri and soooo frustrated. One thing that did not seem right to me about proposed anti-gerrymandering attempts, though, was an idea that made districts stretch out all across the state to “balance” the highly democratic cities with the highly Republican rural areas. That seems wrong also, because the concerns of rural areas and city areas are very different. We need to hear from both! I’m not sure a straddled candidate could understand and represent. We need some representatives strongly representing unique areas and other representatives from more mixed areas. I don’t like the goal of watering down everyone.
So similar to what has been happening in Utah our supermajority legislature is trying to end the voter initiative process and they gut anything that gets passed by voter initiative.
Utah resident here and we had a committee that presented several really good districting solutions - which the Republican Legislature promptly ignored in favor of their own gerrymandered solution. I must admit to laughing when I saw our State on your list of States that had found a solution.
Me too!!! It will be interesting to see what they do since the Utah Supreme Court slapped their hands and told them no. I’m sure they will still try and find a way around it.
Here’s how bad it is in Missouri; we live in a blue island in a sea of red, so the Lege keeps cutting it up to dilute what little state-level representation we had. When we complain that they’ve ruined our democracy, they come back and “remind” us with that old canard that this isn’t a democracy, it’s a republic. It’s not even that, either.
When people in government don't understand the founding concept of "Democratic Republic", it's absolutely infuriating. No...we are not a "direct" democracy. Nor are we a "pure" Republic. I taught H.S. government in Missouri for 20+ years (now live in Colorado). When I read posts like yours--I only hope that the individual legislators that are spewing this are not any of my former students.
I live in TX in a suburb of a huge metroplex. But I am gerrymandered in such a fashion that my representative's office is located in a small town TWO HOURS away from me (driving all highway at 70+ mph). I am in the teeniest section of a tiny sliver... it's infuriating.
Sharon, I was surprised to read this is only a problem in the US, considering many other governments are corrupt in so many other ways. I would love to know who the successful countries are and how they have kept political mapping out of politicians' control. If it was once a problem, what did they do to stop it? If it was never a problem, how have they managed to keep preventing it?
I live in UT but there is an easy fix for gerrymandering - make it a crime. In my home country of U.K in the late seventies several pols were jailed for gerrymandering and while the U.K system is scandal prone, gerrymandering isn’t a problem anymore.
Texas is definitely gerrymandered. one exampl is that they created a district that included the college city of Drnton and stretched it to include all the rural area westward to Amarillo.
I live in Ohio and I'm so excited to vote on this issue in November. We've been so frustrated with the maps here for years.
I live in Illinois and can attest to the fact that Gerrymandering has resulted in losing Republican seats. The state has supermajority of democrats in all offices. The problem with supermajorities is that there is nothing to prevent them from doing whatever they want. There are no checks and balances. We need strong representation for both parties, for all voters. I know it’s also happening in Red states. I’m against Gerrymandering regardless of who benefits. It’s just wrong and hurts democracy.
That’s right, voters deserve multiple legit choices. Because people in both parties can be corrupt, bad for their constituents, etc. (Just look at Bob Menendez and George Santos.)
Right. Wouldn’t it be awful if Democratic gerrymandering resulted in more Dems being n Congress who would put the teeth back in the Voting Rights Act, restore a woman’s right to choose, get rid of unlimited and dark money in politics and reform our immigration system?
I'm not sure I share your confidence that a supermajority would be an unmitigated good for one party but not the other. There is nothing innate to Democrats that would prevent the unchecked balance of power from being a corrupting influence. Democrats have had majorities before and they have not passed term limits, or drafted campaign finance reform, or meaningfully addressed the stock holdings of their members.
I do want every single one of the reforms that you mention. But the weapons we wield can just as easily be used against us, and if gerrymandering gets us there then gerrymandering can also take us all the way back (and further).
Well, I don’t think I said anything about “unmitigated good” or supermajorities but I agree with your sentiments. In a perfect, theoretical world that Sharon likes to envision, all sides would be represented fairly and none would be corruptible. But we don’t live in a perfect world. Today’s Democratic Party (along with the Independents who caucus with them) almost functions as a two-party system because they’re willing to compromise (latest example, bipartisan border bill) and to get anything done they need to make a very wide range of people happy or at least be willing to vote for whatever bill, from Joe Manchin on the right to Bernie Sanders and AOC on the left. All the different constituencies make it messy but that’s the way governing is. They got a lot done under Biden, which was amazing but the Senate fillibuster will trump razor thin majorities in the House and/or the Senate every time. Campaign finance reform, voting rights and electoral college reform, immigration reform, reproductive rights, all of it dies at the hands of the Senate fillibuster. All I’m trying to say is, if the Supreme Court of the United States has decreed that partisan gerrymandering is okay with them and we’re all stuck with it for now, I’d rather it be used for good rather than ill.
Yes, same but I'm in a red state. I have little representation. There's so much corruption in our state government. They do what they want. The Governor has locked (physically locked) the opposing party out of meetings. If we vote for something they don't approve of, they say we were ill informed, and didn't understand what we were voting for, and throw it out. At one point we passed and anti-corruption bill, and they tossed that out. 🤦 One of my favorites this sessions was when they voted against a school lunch bill, saying basically that they didn't want people to get used to getting things and creating an expectation of dependence. Then they dismissed for lunch where they have food provided for them for free for them entirety of the legislative session. Super majorities stink, no matter which party is in control.
Hi Cyndi -- May I ask in what state you reside? (you don't have to answer)
South Dakota.
I was just curious. Thank you.
Nicholas Kristoff wrote a NYT opinion piece a couple months ago discussing how the Democratic party is different on the West Coast than on the East Coast (specifically New England, where I live) and one of the reasons he cited was that Democrats on the West Coast are much more likely to have a super-majority. Here in New England, despite what the colors on our electoral map might say, politics are a lot nearer to 'purple' in states like NH and ME, largely because neither party can get an overwhelming majority (not to say that gerrymandering isn't an issue - NH is grappling with this at the moment). It's also true that Republicans in New England tend to be out-of-step with many of their party members in states where the GOP has a supermajority (conservatism here is far less religious and far more libertarian), and both parties must engage in consensus building if they want to get anything meaningfully accomplished. Checks and balances are essential for a functional democracy!
Agreed! My buddy is from Chicago, and he regularly talks about the Democratic supermajority in the city/state. And the long history of corruption there is impressive (in a bad way). We absolutely need more than one voice in any polity.
In Utah, even with our citizen vote to have an independent commission draw the maps, the legislature ignored it and drew their own anyway. The state Supreme Court just struck that down, so I’m hoping things will change now.
It’s been such an emotional rollercoaster over the years - the joy when the measure was passed, the anger and demoralization when the legislation ignored it. I’m so, so glad the UT Supreme Court overruled it, but it remains to be seen how our legislature will try to walk themselves around it this time…
Yes! Our representatives need competition for their seats! I’m cautiously hopeful.
I came here to say the same thing. The republican supermajority will find away around it or they will gut the referendum like they did with the medical marijuana referendum.
I'm in Utah, too. Thanks to all of you who are sharing about our experience. Our independent commission worked hard to create fair maps. There was a lot of citizen input -- including mine. And then our legislature just threw away all that work, ignored the will of the people. i am hoping it can be fixed, but that can't happen until enough Utahns realize that we need to vote for those who will represent us, not just their own interests.
For those curious about the gerrymandering in your specific state, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project gives each state a scorecard and you can click through to read about your state: https://gerrymander.princeton.edu/
They got Utah wrong. There is definitely a Republican advantage here. And the leg. threw out the maps prepared by our independent commission and heavily gerrymandered the state.
Yes, I believe some of the data may be outdated. Patricia mentioned below that Indiana has a gerrymandering problem: according to this map (2021 data) they get an A rating, but news stories from within the past year document a significant change in their electoral maps.
The Supreme Court's 2019 decision on partisan gerrymandering seems to be filtering down to the states and lower courts. It was cited in Indiana's legal battle over gerrymandering, and it is being cited in my neighboring state (NH) in their attempts to redraw the maps as well.
This is interesting! I've recently lived in SC (which has an F) and VA (which has an A) - the differences when looking at the states are very visible.
Well, I was wrong. GA is worse then I realized 😐
This is an EXCELLENT resource!! It breaks things down into all levels of representation and shows what party, if any, is favored. WOW!!
I live in Colorado and am so thankful that we have an independent commission that draws the maps! We recently went through a redistricting and the results were interesting. There were people that were unhappy but I'm glad that an independent commission drew the lines not our politicians!
Texas victim here. My representative lives about 200 miles from me. It would be so nice to be represented by someone who understood the needs of my community. Right now, it would be impossible because no one could ever get elected. It’s incredibly frustrating and demoralizing.
I'm in Texas,too, and I feel the same way. When I first read Sharon's "principle over party" mantra, I felt so SEEN. I had never put it that way before then, but that's exactly how I've always voted: research each candidate and determine who most closely aligns with my values, then vote for individuals, rehardless of party affiliation. (Except in primaries, of course.) Over the course of a lifetime, that has made me a very purple voter. But when I vote blue, I absolutely feel like I'm throwing my vote away in this state. (That will never stop me, though. I ALWAYS vote, even when the only thing on the ballot is a school board member or something.) It's just SOOOO frustrating, and I know so many people who feel the same. I live in Montgomery County, which likes to boast that it's the "reddest county in Texas." But the more I talk to people, the more I don't think that's entirely true. I just don't know the way out of the R super majority and ridiculous gerrymandering in this state.
It's so interesting to read your post in comparison to Emily's (above). She lives in a relatively small state compared to Texas, and the culture sounds very different.
Funny enough, while a born and raised New Englander, I did live in Texas from 2012 to 2018 and the politics were a *shock* to my system. First time in my life that I went to the ballot box and was given the option to just check 'R' or 'D' and have the WHOLE ballot filled out for one party. I'd also never felt so much that my vote was worth only a fraction of what it should be because our districts were so gerrymandered, and what I thought I knew of Republicans in New England was a far cry from the ones in Texas, who openly wanted a bigger and more powerful government (with *less* local control) so long as it served them. They didn't face any true opposition that could upturn their power, and they knew it.
Even funnier is that, while I was in Texas, Maine elected our own angry populist in Paul LePage. Because Maine has a long history of Independents and other third party candidates, LePage won his first race with only 37% of the vote, giving him the distinction of being one of the reasons Maine ultimately embraced Ranked Choice Voting in 2016. It's allowed us to continue to have multi-party races while supporting consensus among voters. Maine, like every state, is deeply flawed and a far cry from perfect, but my civic engagement has become a lot more satisfying since I moved back home. I do love and support all of my friends in Texas who are continuing on in their much harder effort to make things better.
I live in Michigan and am proud that I signed the petition to place drawing voting districts in the hands of an independent commission rather than in the hands of politicians. We now have a fairer way of allowing citizens to participate in government. Hope OH is successful in their efforts!
I live in North Carolina…heavily gerrymandered and it’s so frustrating.
I agree! I would have been thrilled for Jeff Jackson to remain in Congress, even though I'm not in his district. His transparency is so refreshing and needed! But when you get drawn out of your district.... You run for AG! So now I will get to vote for him, and I'm grateful that he will continue to serve North Carolina.
I would have loved to have seen him as the VP pick. I knew that wouldn't happen, but the thought made me happy. Maybe someday. He's just so level.
Agree. He isn’t quite there re VP this round - but wouldn’t he be a REFRESHINGLY DELIGHTFUL option on the national scene!!
I am frustrated as well!! But, I can’t see it changing with the make up of our General Assembly, mostly old, out of touch, white males. 😩
And Jeff Jackson is amazing. Love his candid explanations on social media of what is actually happening in the day-to-day workings of Congress. Will vote for him as NC Attorney General and I would love to live long enough to see him elected President!!
I live in Brentwood TN. My district is heavily gerrymandered. My house of rep is Andy Ogles, who lives in a different county than me, and this district spans his county (Maury), my county (Williamson) and a section of Nashville (Davidson County) that includes the Covenant School. He is the rep that sent a Christmas card with his entire family holding AR-15's several years ago. He has a challenger this election cycle, but I cannot imagine she will win. My district votes red down the line regardless of candidate. UGH
I’m in TN too and what’s worse is that the state legislature would never allow a ballot initiative like the one that voters will vote on in Ohio. Citizens cannot collect signatures for a petition for a ballot measure. It can only be on the ballot if the legislature says so, which is why we will never be able to vote on this or on whether a woman is mandated to carry and give birth to her rapist’s baby (which currently, she is).
There is so much that discourages me about our state legislature!
Oh wow. Have you listened to the podcast series called "Supermajority" (from Embedded)? It follows three Covenant moms and their engagement with the TN legislature.
GA isn’t as bad as some, and I think my district is fairly well drawn, but voters do not decide what initiatives are on the ballot.
That is incredibly frustrating because there are some issues that I’d love to be able to vote on individually. I know there are some laws that would be passed if the entire population voted vs the representatives, but it can’t happen under our current system.
One of the few good things about living in Missouri is we do have the ballot initiative. One of the many bad things is, just because we vote and pass laws, doesn’t mean our supermajority legislators will fund/enforce them. We voted to expand Medicaid, but our lawmakers initially refused to fund it. Missouri is the puppy mill capital of the country. We voted to end the practice. Our lawmakers ignore our will and do not enforce the ban. We needed 170K signatures to put abortion on the ballot. We collected 280K. We are waiting to see if our SOS will certify them. He’s delayed the process with illegal ballot language that a judge struck and re-wrote, so we cannot trust him. If it is on the ballot, and passes, it depends on who wins AG, because the incumbent has vowed not to enforce it. Missouri’s had a super majority party for 20 years. It does not represent the will of the people. This past session, the goal of that party was to make the initiative petition harder to use so that we cannot make the laws the people want. The super minority party heroically fought back with a historic filibuster that saved our right to self-govern. Democracy is hard and exhausting work. I am grateful we can share our experiences and encourage each other in this work, because failure is not an option.
Missouri and South Dakota are like crazy Republican corruption twins. Our pro choice stuff was certified, but it keeps getting dragged into court by this "right to life" group. Coincidentally, that group is led by a state legislator, who also coincidentally managed to pass "emergency" legislation this past session to allow people to remove their signatures from petitions. 🙄 That didn't end up working out for him. We had so many more signatures on the petition then we needed and hardly anyone filled out his form to say they wanted their signature removed. So now they've switched tactics to say they were falsely collecting signatures. All this because they are afraid of this passing and restoring Roe in our state.
True story! They will do anything, legal or otherwise. They are just as happy to do illegal things, as long as it delays or denies our right to self-govern. In MO, the attempt to get people to remove their signatures was led by and funded by the Catholic Church. They didn’t even try to hide it. They wrote their name all over it. They were proud of their work to impose their religious beliefs on the entire state.
Also in Missouri and soooo frustrated. One thing that did not seem right to me about proposed anti-gerrymandering attempts, though, was an idea that made districts stretch out all across the state to “balance” the highly democratic cities with the highly Republican rural areas. That seems wrong also, because the concerns of rural areas and city areas are very different. We need to hear from both! I’m not sure a straddled candidate could understand and represent. We need some representatives strongly representing unique areas and other representatives from more mixed areas. I don’t like the goal of watering down everyone.
I didn’t even think of that. Another reason supermajorities are toxic.
My friend lives in St Louis (I’m in Minneapolis) and she has basically said the same thing you’re saying. Super frustrating but keep fighting!!!
So similar to what has been happening in Utah our supermajority legislature is trying to end the voter initiative process and they gut anything that gets passed by voter initiative.
I’m sorry to hear that. You have my sympathy and support!
Utah resident here and we had a committee that presented several really good districting solutions - which the Republican Legislature promptly ignored in favor of their own gerrymandered solution. I must admit to laughing when I saw our State on your list of States that had found a solution.
Me too!!! It will be interesting to see what they do since the Utah Supreme Court slapped their hands and told them no. I’m sure they will still try and find a way around it.
Here’s how bad it is in Missouri; we live in a blue island in a sea of red, so the Lege keeps cutting it up to dilute what little state-level representation we had. When we complain that they’ve ruined our democracy, they come back and “remind” us with that old canard that this isn’t a democracy, it’s a republic. It’s not even that, either.
When people in government don't understand the founding concept of "Democratic Republic", it's absolutely infuriating. No...we are not a "direct" democracy. Nor are we a "pure" Republic. I taught H.S. government in Missouri for 20+ years (now live in Colorado). When I read posts like yours--I only hope that the individual legislators that are spewing this are not any of my former students.
I live in TX in a suburb of a huge metroplex. But I am gerrymandered in such a fashion that my representative's office is located in a small town TWO HOURS away from me (driving all highway at 70+ mph). I am in the teeniest section of a tiny sliver... it's infuriating.
Sharon, I was surprised to read this is only a problem in the US, considering many other governments are corrupt in so many other ways. I would love to know who the successful countries are and how they have kept political mapping out of politicians' control. If it was once a problem, what did they do to stop it? If it was never a problem, how have they managed to keep preventing it?
I live in UT but there is an easy fix for gerrymandering - make it a crime. In my home country of U.K in the late seventies several pols were jailed for gerrymandering and while the U.K system is scandal prone, gerrymandering isn’t a problem anymore.
Texas is definitely gerrymandered. one exampl is that they created a district that included the college city of Drnton and stretched it to include all the rural area westward to Amarillo.