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Gerrymandering: the legal way to rig an election

Why bother stuffing ballot boxes and getting felons [1] to vote when you can just draw the district boundaries to ensure your guy or gal wins? Via Reason.TV [2], here’s an interview with Bill Mundell on the dangers of gerrymandering [3]:

It may not be the sexiest political issue of our time, but it is of fundamental importance to the health of our democracy. Allowing legislators to draw their own districts creates a tremendous conflict of interest between creating districts that accurately represent a community of interests and thus fairly represent the people of an area, and the self-serving needs of politicians.

This is a particular problem in California, where “safe seat” (or “incumbency gerrymandering,” as Mundell calls it) boundaries almost guarantee the reelection of a state or federal legislator. The problem is so bad that almost every member of California’s congressional delegation gets reelected in election after election, even though Congress has a miserable approval rating. And the situation with our state legislature isn’t much different.

We took a big step to fix the problem in 2008 by passing Proposition 11 [4], which took the power to draw legislative districts away from the legislators and gave it to a citizen’s commission. This year, we aim to finish the job by passing Proposition 20 [5], which would do the same thing for congressional districts. But, you guessed it, the oligarchy has struck back, getting Proposition 27 [6] on the ballot. If passed, this measure will eliminate the citizen’s commission created by Proposition 11. It is nothing less than a swinish attempt by the legislature and their allies in the House to seize power from the people and preserve their hand-drawn fiefdoms.

And you wonder why I call California’s legislature “arrogant [7].”

For the sake of genuine representative democracy in California, it is essential that Proposition 20 pass and Proposition 27 fail.

Put an end to gerrymandering. Break the oligarchy.

UPDATE: J.E. Dyer at Hot Air’s Green Room has an excellent post on seven votes [8] that may determine California’s future.

UPDATE 2: Also take a look at an article in the LA Weekly about Props 20 and 27 and why you should give a rip [9]. It includes a map of my entry into the California Hall of Shame for Shameless Gerrymandering, CD 23 [10], which is 200 miles long and, at one point, only 100 yards wide.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets [11])