In representative democracies, gerrymandering is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The manipulation may involve "cracking" or "packing". Gerrymandering can also be used to protect incumbents. Wayne Dawkins, a professor at Morgan State University, describes it as politicians picking their voters instead of voters picking their politicians.
California is the most populous U.S. state; as a result, it has the most representation in the United States House of Representatives, with 52 Representatives. Each Representative represents one congressional district.
William Duncan Schuette is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd attorney general of Michigan from 2011 to 2019. He was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Senate in 1990 and for Governor of Michigan in the 2018 gubernatorial election.
Elections in Michigan are held to fill various local, state and federal seats. Special elections may be held to fill vacancies at other points in time.
Michigan has a republican form of government with three branches of government: the executive branch consisting of the governor of Michigan and the other independently elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch consisting of the House of Representatives and Senate; and the judicial branch consisting of the one court of justice. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall, and ratification.
The politics of Michigan, a competitive state that leans Democratic in presidential elections, are divided. Michigan is considered part of the Democrats' "Blue Wall." Governors since the 1970s have alternated between the two parties, and statewide offices including attorney general, secretary of state, and senator have been held by members of both parties in varying proportions, though the state currently is represented by two Democratic U.S. Senators and Democrats hold every statewide office. The Democratic Party has a slim majority of two seats in the Senate of the Michigan Legislature, and the House is currently deadlocked at 54 seats for each party. The state's congressional delegation is commonly split, with one party or the other typically holding a narrow majority, and Democrats currently have a 7-6 majority.
Redistricting in Pennsylvania refers to the decennial process of redrawing state legislative and federal congressional districts in Pennsylvania.
The 2018 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. These midterm elections occurred during Incumbent Republican President Donald Trump's term. Although the Republican Party increased its majority in the Senate, unified Republican control of Congress and the White House was brought to an end when the Democratic Party won control of the House of Representatives in what was widely characterized as a "blue wave" election.
Gerrymandering is the practice of setting boundaries of electoral districts to favor specific political interests within legislative bodies, often resulting in districts with convoluted, winding boundaries rather than compact areas. The term "gerrymandering" was coined after a review of Massachusetts's redistricting maps of 1812 set by Governor Elbridge Gerry noted that one of the districts looked like a mythical salamander.
Redistricting in California has historically been highly controversial. Critics have accused legislators of attempting to protect themselves from competition by gerrymandering districts. Conflicts between the governor and the legislature during redistricting often have only been resolved by the courts.
The National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) is a US organization that focuses on redistricting and is affiliated with the Democratic Party. The organization coordinates campaign strategy, directs fundraising, organizes ballot initiatives and files lawsuits against state redistricting maps. At launch, the organization announced that it intends to support Democratic candidates for local and state offices in order for them to control congressional map drawing in the redistricting cycle following the 2020 United States census.
The 2020 United States redistricting cycle is in progress following the completion of the 2020 United States census. In all fifty states, various bodies are re-drawing state legislative districts. States that are apportioned more than one seat in the United States House of Representatives are also drawing new districts for that legislative body.
REDMAP is a project of the Republican State Leadership Committee of the United States to increase Republican control of congressional seats as well as state legislatures, largely through determination of electoral district boundaries. The project has made effective use of partisan gerrymandering, by relying on previously unavailable mapping software such as Maptitude to improve the precision with which district lines are strategically drawn. The strategy was focused on swing blue states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin where there was a Democratic majority but which they could swing towards Republican with appropriate redistricting. The project was launched in 2010 and estimated to have cost the Republican party around US$30 million.
Katie Fahey is an American activist who led the successful grassroots campaign to ban partisan gerrymandering in Michigan. As the founder of Voters Not Politicians, she organized thousands of volunteers who collected over 425,000 voter signatures for Proposal 2, a ballot initiative amending the state constitution to create an independent redistricting commission. The campaign garnered national attention and brought in millions of dollars in donations. Opponents sued to keep the measure off the ballot, but the Michigan Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court allowed it, and on November 6, 2018, the state electorate approved Proposal 2 by 61%. Fahey now serves as Executive Director of The People, a national nonpartisan reform organization.
The Michigan Senate election of 2022 occurred on November 8, 2022, to elect all 38 members to the Michigan Senate. The election coincided with elections for all of Michigan's constitutional offices; governor, attorney general, secretary of state and all 110 seats in the Michigan House of Representatives. Seats in the Michigan Senate were last elected in 2018.
2018 Michigan Proposal 3 was a ballot initiative approved by voters in Michigan as part of the 2018 United States elections. The proposal, funded by the ACLU of Michigan, reformed Michigan elections by protecting the right to a secret ballot, ensuring access to ballots for military and overseas voters, adding straight-ticket voting, automatically registering voters, allowing any citizen to vote at any time, provided they have a proof of residency, allowing access to absentee ballots for any reason, and auditing election results. The proposal was overwhelmingly approved with 66.92% of the vote.
Missouri state elections in 2020 were held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Aside from its presidential primaries held on March 10, its primary elections were held on August 4, 2020.
The 2010 United States redistricting cycle took place following the completion of the 2010 United States census. In all fifty states, various bodies re-drew state legislative districts. States that are apportioned more than one seat in the United States House of Representatives also drew new districts for that legislative body. The resulting new districts were first implemented for the 2011 and 2012 elections.
An election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect all 110 members to Michigan's House of Representatives. The election coincided with elections for other offices, including governor, State Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. Democrats won a majority of 56 out of 110 seats, winning control of the chamber for the first time since 2008.
Redistricting in Ohio is the process by which boundaries are redrawn for federal congressional and state legislative districts. It has historically been highly controversial. Critics have accused legislators of attempting to protect themselves from competition by gerrymandering districts.
