March 6, 2014
Why your vote for
Congress might not matter
This article discusses
how lots of seats in the House of Representatives are not going to be close
elections because of how the states are gerrymandered. In five states in the
south, there are a total of only 9 democratic congressmen. In fact, most states
that are gerrymandered favor the republicans. Illinois is the only that that is
gerrymandered in favor of the democrats. There are also states, such as Iowa,
that are not gerrymandered at all. This is because in Iowa, the group assigned
to redistrict the state is made up of two legislative staffers so there is no
political interference. Last time that Iowa redistricted, they ended up placing
two incumbents against one another for a seat in the House. I believe that more
states should implement systems of redistricting similar to Iowa’s. This would
help to insure that every congressman has an equal chance when running for
election. Implementing a system like that would also make sure that congressmen
listen to their district more. This would be due to them not being almost
guaranteed re-election because of the district mapping. If they know that their
re-election is not guaranteed, they will listen to the public more often.
No comments:
Post a Comment