Ross: A legally-rigged election system for Republicans and Democrats
Jul 1, 2019, 6:21 AM | Updated: 10:06 am
(AP)
(AP)
The United States Supreme Court has decided political gerrymandering is none of its business, leaving North Carolina’s Republican Legislature free to draw congressional districts that bless Republicans — and Maryland’s Democratic Legislature free to draw lines that bless Democrats.
And so in North Carolina, where Republicans get only 53 percent of the votes, they win 10 of the state’s 13 House seats. And in Maryland, where Democrats they get only 65 percent of the votes, they get seven of the eight house seats.
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As long as the districts are rigged on the basis of politics, not race, the Supreme Court is happy to let the party that runs the Legislature draw the lines.
And I will say, the system can certainly cut down on recounts!
In North Carolina’s 12th District, for example, which includes the city of Charlotte, the Democrats won by 18 points last year. And in the 11th District, near Asheville, the Republican won by 14 points.
Although, if voters ever became sufficiently fed up with all this, it is pretty easy to change addresses. In North Carolina you can change your address just 25 days before an election. So if a few thousand Democrats from the 12th District were to visit the 11th District around, say, next October — and I hear the 11th is a beautiful place that time of year — maybe the courts won’t care about that either.
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