Photo: The original political cartoon of Gerrymander
Volume 5, Number 2: December 2020| Op-Ed
What is gerrymandering? Gerrymandering is referred to the process of drawing a political map, by divide people into groups of voters in the political district, to favor one political party over others. Back in 1812, Massachusetts state governor Elbridge Gerry had authorized a redrawing of the voting district, resulting in the disproportionate amount of senate to Gerry party. Later, the term Gerrymander was made famous by a political cartoon title “Gerry-mander” refer to the outline of these districts as “salamander”. The concept of Gerrymandering can be done in two ways, packing a district with opposing party voters to lower the number of representatives for the opposing parties or cracking an opposing party voter into many different districts where there will be a minority and the opposing party will lose in those districts. While Gerrymandering has been a topic of debate and outlined in the U.S. court many times, there is still no consensus on whether Gerrymandering is right or wrong. One of the concerns for me is the case of the Thailand General election back in 2019, where some political parties voice their concern that the new constituency map drawn by the governing party might lead to unfair advantage. While the election had ended in a suspicious result, the topics of Gerrymandering were overshadowed by more glaring techniques done by the government. In this article, I intended to bring people’s attention to this topic and to raise concern over the practice of Gerrymandering. I will briefly mention the possible benefit of Gerrymandering, why those benefits might not be true, and the harm done by Gerrymandering.
Then, what is the possible benefit of Gerrymandering? In my opinion, any political tool can be used to help those with less fortunate than others. The concept of Gerrymandering can be used to empower minority groups that might need more political help. For example, the government can redraw the district to represent people’s race or belief, to give them their political representation. If the government shapes the district to have a majority of people as a minority group, the representation from this district will come from the voice of minority people. Compare to drawing the district based on the proximity and amount of people in the area, the minority people might be separated from each other and contain lower political power. With the right priority in mind, Gerrymandering can be used to better differentiate people with different needs to increase their political power. However, as the history of Gerrymandering in the US suggest, the Gerrymandering is usually done by the party in power to further increase their political power. While there is a possibility for gerrymandering to benefit the minority, that possibility is not likely to become reality any time soon.
So, what are the problems of Gerrymandering? The most obvious problem is that Gerrymandering distorts the public vote. For example, in North Carolina in 2015, the Democrat party gain 50.0 percent of the vote, and the Republican party gains 48.7 percent of the vote. However, due to the election district drawn by Republicans, only four Democrat representatives got elect and nine Republican got elect. This is one of many example cases happen in U.S. election where the voter choice does not reflect in the elected representative. While in Thailand, there is Party-List proportional representation to make sure that votes that do not count for representative in the district have affected the representation in another way, the U.S. does not have this system. With that in mind, Gerrymandering can distort the vote count and create a misrepresent cast of representatives.
Second, Gerrymandering represents an unfair advantage between the competing party. Since the drawing of election district for Thailand 2019 election is done by the Election commission which is considered to be sided with the government and the Palang Pracharat Party, a party which shows their support for the prime minister. The order to redraw the election district comes from the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) who issued a Section 44 order. According to Phumtham Wechayachai, a secretary of the Phue Thai party, there are at least 50 politicians who choose to move from their original party to join a “party affiliated with those in power” before the election. It is clear to me that those politicians choose to move to a party in question due to the common knowledge that the election is stacked on the sides of the Palang Pracharat Party. While many shady things had been done by the party in power, Gerrymandering is one of the more subtle tools that do not immediately catch the public eyes. In this context, Gerrymandering has been used as a political tool for the party in power to gain an advantage over other parties even before the election period begin.
Third, Gerrymander can, and often, use against a minority group of voters. In the US, there are some example cases of Gerrymandering used against Native Americans and African Americans by lowering their political power via a representative. In 2017, Navajo Nation, a Native American tribe in Utah, filed a lawsuit against Utah country to challenge the election district boundary. The courts rule in favor of the Navajo nation, saying that the new map is unconstitutional and draw based on race. Back in 2012, the Navajo Nation has a similar concern about the election district. In response, Utah countries create eight districts with the idea of four being “white-majority district” and four be “Native American majority district”. However, there are “leftover” districts that include two communities hundreds of miles apart from each other. There should be noted that there are cases the Gerrymandering was used to gain a minority group a political favor. For example, In North Carolina in 1990, the North Carolina General Assembly redraw the congressional district, with only one district being a “minority-majority” district. In response, the US Department of Justice rejects the plan and instructs the state to add a new district with a “minority-majority”. The new district was 260km long, stretch along the highway line with no connection other than race.
In conclusion, while there are some cases of Gerrymandering used for the minority groups of voters, majority groups of voters can challenge the new district. As seen in the case of Shaw v. Reno, groups of white voters challenge a new map drawn by the North Carolina General Assembly on the violation of the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause. In the end, while the court recognizes that the reasons for the redrawn district are from “noble intention”, the redraw of the election district is “exceed what was reasonably necessary to avoid racial imbalance.”. the process of Gerrymandering, even in the case that it benefits the minority groups of people, is the abuse of government power to benefit the interest of one group, which should not be encouraged in many ways.
Citation
Wines, M. (2019, June 27). What Is Gerrymandering? And How Does it Work? Retrieved November 29, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/us/what-is-gerrymandering.html
Ingraham, C. (2019, April 26). This is the best explanation of gerrymandering you will ever see. Retrieved November 29, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/01/this-is-the-best-explanation-of-gerrymandering-you-will-ever-see/
Gerrymandering. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/gerrymandering
Abuza, Z. (2019, May 31). Thailand’s Stolen Election. Retrieved November 29, 2020, from https://thediplomat.com/2019/05/thailands-stolen-election/
Rojanaphruk, P. (2018, November 30). Parties Fume Over New ‘Gerrymandered’ Electoral Map. Retrieved November 29, 2020, from https://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2018/11/30/parties-fume-over-gerrymandered-electoral-map/
Supreme Court and gerrymandering: The history of election fixing. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-46062154
Limited, B. (n.d.). EC finalises new electoral map. Retrieved November 29, 2020, from https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/1584058/ec-finalises-new-electoral-map
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A fascinating insight!
As an avid advocate for democracy, gerrymandering has been, for lack of a better word, a pain to deal with. The way that voting districts are drawn by politicians makes the democratic system highly undemocratic. From this system, voters are choosing their politicians but politicians are instead choosing their voters! However, there are so many problems with the issue.
Firstly, what is counted as gerrymandering? How should a district be represented? Where should the “line” be? What is a fair distribution? What is not? All of these questions have a legal precedent but there are still a fine line and loopholes politicians can hop through.
Secondly, gerrymandering is now a science. Technology has allowed politicians to cut up districts with alarming accuracy in their favour. If this is not undemocratic then I don’t know what is.
Yet, I am aware that districts are a necessary component of the voting process. Considering how representation is distributed across a nation, districts are the simplest way to do this. This is similar to how drawing private land is a solution to the tragedy of the commons problem.
Perhaps a revamping of the district drawing system should be considered. The biggest way to improve the system is to take the authority of drawing districts out of the hands of politicians and into the hands of an unbiased, incorruptible system. I am aware that this is a difficult request but without it, democracy is severely limited.