zztop
Well-known member
Offline
I think it is time to have a dedicated topic about it.
Gerrymandering
- Thread starterzztop
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Tags
- gerrymandering
Users who are viewing this thread
LA 2 L.A.
Well-known member
Offline
The corrupt Republican judges didn't wipe it from existence, but they made it entirely unenforceable.
You're such a...
The corrupt Republicans have given the green light for extreme gerrymandering on the grounds of "political affiliation," so they will chop all those majority black districts up and say they did it on the grounds of "political affiliation."
Optimus Prime
Well-known member
Offline
Alabama lawmakers took initial votes Tuesday giving the greenlight to legislation that would change congressional and state senate district maps in primary elections that are already underway.
Legislative committees in the state House and Senate approved the new boundaries despite the fact that absentee votes have already been cast in the primaries. The bills now head to the House and Senate floors for approval.
Republican lawmakers advanced the measures amid furious opposition from Black Alabamians.
Black voters and community leaders spoke before the committees Tuesday, condemning Republican lawmakers for rushing to put in place new maps to roll back decades of progress in Black political representation.
“Hear me clearly when I say that we the people of Barbour County, we the people of Alabama, we the people of the Black Belt, we the people of the South, we the people of this nation, we refuse to be silent,” Eliza Jane Franklin, a Barbour County resident, told lawmakers. “And we refuse to let you kill us by killing our vote.”
Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee are racing to pass new maps for this year’s midterms after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling last week gutting the landmark Voting Rights Act. The ruling will make it much more difficult for minority voters to prove in court that electoral maps dilute their voting power.
In the case of Alabama, the attempt to redraw boundaries expressly challenges a legal settlement in which the state agreed not to redistrict until 2030...........
Alabama’s push to redistrict is remarkable because voters have already cast absentee ballots in the state’s May 19 primary election. The legislation passed in committees will allow the state to nullify votes cast in some of the congressional races and later hold special elections under new maps instead.
Both committees took rapid votes after hearing a minimal amount of public testimony and rejecting proposed amendments from Democrats, including one measure that would have required public notice of the changes.
State Sen. Vivian Davis Figures (D) harshly criticized Republican lawmakers who voted down her amendment to communicate the changes to impacted voters. “Thank you to all of my colleagues for showing me once again who you are,” she said..............
www.democracydocket.com
Legislative committees in the state House and Senate approved the new boundaries despite the fact that absentee votes have already been cast in the primaries. The bills now head to the House and Senate floors for approval.
Republican lawmakers advanced the measures amid furious opposition from Black Alabamians.
Black voters and community leaders spoke before the committees Tuesday, condemning Republican lawmakers for rushing to put in place new maps to roll back decades of progress in Black political representation.
“Hear me clearly when I say that we the people of Barbour County, we the people of Alabama, we the people of the Black Belt, we the people of the South, we the people of this nation, we refuse to be silent,” Eliza Jane Franklin, a Barbour County resident, told lawmakers. “And we refuse to let you kill us by killing our vote.”
Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee are racing to pass new maps for this year’s midterms after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling last week gutting the landmark Voting Rights Act. The ruling will make it much more difficult for minority voters to prove in court that electoral maps dilute their voting power.
In the case of Alabama, the attempt to redraw boundaries expressly challenges a legal settlement in which the state agreed not to redistrict until 2030...........
Alabama’s push to redistrict is remarkable because voters have already cast absentee ballots in the state’s May 19 primary election. The legislation passed in committees will allow the state to nullify votes cast in some of the congressional races and later hold special elections under new maps instead.
Both committees took rapid votes after hearing a minimal amount of public testimony and rejecting proposed amendments from Democrats, including one measure that would have required public notice of the changes.
State Sen. Vivian Davis Figures (D) harshly criticized Republican lawmakers who voted down her amendment to communicate the changes to impacted voters. “Thank you to all of my colleagues for showing me once again who you are,” she said..............
Alabama legislative committees approve GOP gerrymanders despite ongoing primary election
Republican lawmakers advanced the measures amid furious opposition from Black Alabamians.
www.democracydocket.com
faceman
Well-known member
Offline
Wise words here.
JD Vance with the absolutely pathological gaslighting. He says that blue states are the ones who have been gerrymandered to the max, while the GOP has refrained and stood back.
At least this guy can easily show how full of shirt that Vance is.
At least this guy can easily show how full of shirt that Vance is.
LA 2 L.A.
Well-known member
Offline
I agree. The most important thing to me is that he's not the only Democrat that is breaking from the old guard Democrats who tried to win elections by being more like Republicans in their policy positions.
The swing away from Republicans in recent elections hasn't just been a swing away from Republicans. It's also been a swing away from the self-labeled centrist, career Democrats. Democrats like this guy and Mamdani, have been kicking the centrist old guard of the Democratic party's arses. How have they done that? By doing just what this guy says, stop playing by their rules and just start talking to people face to face and honestly. Most Americans are neither as dumb nor closed minded as people make them out to be. That includes those in rural America. I say that as someone who is just as much a product of a rural upbringing as I am an urban one.
Optimus Prime
Well-known member
Offline
Tennessee Republicans redraw maps to erase last Democratic, Black-majority district
Move comes days after supreme court ruling weakened Voting Rights Act protections against racial gerrymandering
Optimus Prime
Well-known member
Offline
The reaction speed of southern states to the US supreme court’s decision last week in Louisiana v Callais has been breathtaking for voting rights activists.
One week after Callais, Louisiana’s governor has ordered the state’s ongoing congressional election to be set aside while state lawmakers redraw maps to eliminate a Democratic-majority – that is, a Black-majority – seat covering Baton Rouge.
Alabama’s Republican-majority legislature is drafting legislation in a special session that will allow it to set aside the results of a completedprimary later this year if courts lift an injunction on its redistricting.
Florida was amid a special redistricting session as the ruling was handed down, passing a congressional map for 28 districts that packs Black and brown voters into four districts on the south Florida coast and Orlando, eliminating every other Democratic majority.
Mississippi will convene two weeks from now in a Confederate-era capitol building that it hasn’t used in 100 years, ostensibly to eliminate the Democratic majority in the one Mississippi district held by a Black representative.
South Carolina’s Republican majority in the statehouse voted Wednesday to extend its legislative calendar, allowing time to consider whether they should eliminate the state’s sole Democratic-majority, Black-majority district, held by long-serving representative James Clyburn.
And activists watched Tennessee lawmakers vote Thursday morning to eliminate its one remaining Democratic district around Memphis, a city of about 610,000 people, about two-thirds of whom are Black.
Donald Trump’s demand to tear up political norms has been met by Republican states eager to dust off a segregation-era playbook that maximizes the political power of white voters.
“What’s happening right now is probably the swiftest disenfranchisement of Black folks since Reconstruction, due to disenfranchisement by racist gerrymandering. And they will lie and say that it’s for political purposes,” said Democratic state representative Justin Pearson of Tennessee, a Memphis legislator running for a congressional district blown into pieces by Republican lawmakers.
“They cracked it into three. The district stretches hundreds of miles … it’s completely diluted in thirds almost to the percentage. It’s surgical, how they remove the possibility of Black participation.”……..
www.theguardian.com
One week after Callais, Louisiana’s governor has ordered the state’s ongoing congressional election to be set aside while state lawmakers redraw maps to eliminate a Democratic-majority – that is, a Black-majority – seat covering Baton Rouge.
Alabama’s Republican-majority legislature is drafting legislation in a special session that will allow it to set aside the results of a completedprimary later this year if courts lift an injunction on its redistricting.
Florida was amid a special redistricting session as the ruling was handed down, passing a congressional map for 28 districts that packs Black and brown voters into four districts on the south Florida coast and Orlando, eliminating every other Democratic majority.
Mississippi will convene two weeks from now in a Confederate-era capitol building that it hasn’t used in 100 years, ostensibly to eliminate the Democratic majority in the one Mississippi district held by a Black representative.
South Carolina’s Republican majority in the statehouse voted Wednesday to extend its legislative calendar, allowing time to consider whether they should eliminate the state’s sole Democratic-majority, Black-majority district, held by long-serving representative James Clyburn.
And activists watched Tennessee lawmakers vote Thursday morning to eliminate its one remaining Democratic district around Memphis, a city of about 610,000 people, about two-thirds of whom are Black.
Donald Trump’s demand to tear up political norms has been met by Republican states eager to dust off a segregation-era playbook that maximizes the political power of white voters.
“What’s happening right now is probably the swiftest disenfranchisement of Black folks since Reconstruction, due to disenfranchisement by racist gerrymandering. And they will lie and say that it’s for political purposes,” said Democratic state representative Justin Pearson of Tennessee, a Memphis legislator running for a congressional district blown into pieces by Republican lawmakers.
“They cracked it into three. The district stretches hundreds of miles … it’s completely diluted in thirds almost to the percentage. It’s surgical, how they remove the possibility of Black participation.”……..
‘This is not democracy’: voting rights activists shocked by speed of US states moving to stifle Black voters
Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and other southern states stun residents with all-out charge to redraw congressional maps to favor white voters after supreme court ruling
Tennessee Republicans redraw maps to erase last Democratic, Black-majority district
Move comes days after supreme court ruling weakened Voting Rights Act protections against racial gerrymandering
To be fair, the district that is being "changed" had a white man represent it for the last 20 years, and the republican candidate that is most likely to now win is a black woman.
faceman
Well-known member
Offline
There will be a lawsuit filed in MS. State auditor Shad Whie publicly said we are going to eliminate Benny Thompson'sThe reaction speed of southern states to the US supreme court’s decision last week in Louisiana v Callais has been breathtaking for voting rights activists.
One week after Callais, Louisiana’s governor has ordered the state’s ongoing congressional election to be set aside while state lawmakers redraw maps to eliminate a Democratic-majority – that is, a Black-majority – seat covering Baton Rouge.
Alabama’s Republican-majority legislature is drafting legislation in a special session that will allow it to set aside the results of a completedprimary later this year if courts lift an injunction on its redistricting.
Florida was amid a special redistricting session as the ruling was handed down, passing a congressional map for 28 districts that packs Black and brown voters into four districts on the south Florida coast and Orlando, eliminating every other Democratic majority.
Mississippi will convene two weeks from now in a Confederate-era capitol building that it hasn’t used in 100 years, ostensibly to eliminate the Democratic majority in the one Mississippi district held by a Black representative.
South Carolina’s Republican majority in the statehouse voted Wednesday to extend its legislative calendar, allowing time to consider whether they should eliminate the state’s sole Democratic-majority, Black-majority district, held by long-serving representative James Clyburn.
And activists watched Tennessee lawmakers vote Thursday morning to eliminate its one remaining Democratic district around Memphis, a city of about 610,000 people, about two-thirds of whom are Black.
Donald Trump’s demand to tear up political norms has been met by Republican states eager to dust off a segregation-era playbook that maximizes the political power of white voters.
“What’s happening right now is probably the swiftest disenfranchisement of Black folks since Reconstruction, due to disenfranchisement by racist gerrymandering. And they will lie and say that it’s for political purposes,” said Democratic state representative Justin Pearson of Tennessee, a Memphis legislator running for a congressional district blown into pieces by Republican lawmakers.
“They cracked it into three. The district stretches hundreds of miles … it’s completely diluted in thirds almost to the percentage. It’s surgical, how they remove the possibility of Black participation.”……..
‘This is not democracy’: voting rights activists shocked by speed of US states moving to stifle Black voters
Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and other southern states stun residents with all-out charge to redraw congressional maps to favor white voters after supreme court ruling
district. Scotus said race can't be used as a factor and it clearly is. That said,former Hinds county GOP leader Pete Perry
has warned republicans this might backfire. It might create 2 blue districts instead of eliminating 1.
Former Hinds Co. Republican chair says pump the brakes on Congressional redistricting talks
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - A former Hinds County Republican Party chairman says it’s time to pump the brakes on talks of redrawing Rep. Bennie Thompson out of his district.
Optimus Prime
Well-known member
Offline
The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, delivering another major setback to the party in a nationwide battle against Republicans for an edge in this year’s midterm elections.
The court ruled that the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize the mid-decade redistricting. Voters narrowly approved the amendment April 21, but the court’s ruling renders the results of that vote meaningless.
“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” the court said in its opinion.
Democrats had hoped to win as many as four additional U.S. House seats under Virginia’s redrawn U.S. House map as part of an attempt to offset Republican redistricting done elsewhere at the urging of President Donald Trump.
That ruling, combined with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision severely weakening the Voting Rights Act, has supercharged the Republicans’ congressional gerrymandering advantage heading into this year’s midterm elections.
Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade after each census to account for population changes. But Trump started an unusual flurry of mid-decade redistricting last year when he encouraged Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts in a bid to win several additional U.S. House seats and hold on to their party’s narrow majority in the midterm elections……..,
apnews.com
The court ruled that the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize the mid-decade redistricting. Voters narrowly approved the amendment April 21, but the court’s ruling renders the results of that vote meaningless.
“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” the court said in its opinion.
Democrats had hoped to win as many as four additional U.S. House seats under Virginia’s redrawn U.S. House map as part of an attempt to offset Republican redistricting done elsewhere at the urging of President Donald Trump.
That ruling, combined with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision severely weakening the Voting Rights Act, has supercharged the Republicans’ congressional gerrymandering advantage heading into this year’s midterm elections.
Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade after each census to account for population changes. But Trump started an unusual flurry of mid-decade redistricting last year when he encouraged Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts in a bid to win several additional U.S. House seats and hold on to their party’s narrow majority in the midterm elections……..,
Virginia Supreme Court strikes down Democrats' redrawn US House maps, giving Republicans a win
The Virginia Supreme Court has struck down a Democratic congressional redistricting plan that had won voter approval.
apnews.comThe Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, delivering another major setback to the party in a nationwide battle against Republicans for an edge in this year’s midterm elections.
The court ruled that the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize the mid-decade redistricting. Voters narrowly approved the amendment April 21, but the court’s ruling renders the results of that vote meaningless.
“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” the court said in its opinion.
Democrats had hoped to win as many as four additional U.S. House seats under Virginia’s redrawn U.S. House map as part of an attempt to offset Republican redistricting done elsewhere at the urging of President Donald Trump.
That ruling, combined with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision severely weakening the Voting Rights Act, has supercharged the Republicans’ congressional gerrymandering advantage heading into this year’s midterm elections.
Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade after each census to account for population changes. But Trump started an unusual flurry of mid-decade redistricting last year when he encouraged Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts in a bid to win several additional U.S. House seats and hold on to their party’s narrow majority in the midterm elections……..,
Virginia Supreme Court strikes down Democrats' redrawn US House maps, giving Republicans a win
The Virginia Supreme Court has struck down a Democratic congressional redistricting plan that had won voter approval.
Technically the redistricting can still happen, it just won't happen until 2028. The ruling was on HOW they went about doing it, not the gerrymandering itself. All the Democrats have to do is follow the proper procedures and the new gerrymandering can still be put into place.
UncleTrvlingJim
Well-known member
Offline
The problem of course is the procedures are different for every state, with some states like Texas, Tennessee and Florida allowing the state legislature to change them at will and Democratic led states have a more cumbersome process to make it less partisan. What this does is encourage states to do away with bipartisan districting and just make it all partisan.
UncleTrvlingJim
Well-known member
Offline
Also, I think it's really important for people to understand the ruling in Virginia b/c the Republicans like to hide behind the idea that this was some crazy push by Democrats that broke all the rules.
The Constitution of Virginia states that to change the Constitution of Virginia, the General Assembly must vote on a Constitutional Amendment twice before it goes to a referendum, and that the second time the Assembly votes, it must be after an election between the two votes. So what happened here? In October 2025 the Virginia General Assembly voted to change the Constitution to allow redistricting. In November 2025, Virginia had an election. Then the General Assembly voted again in favor of the change in January. And then in April the people of Virginia approved this change.
So what was the challenge? After all there were 2 votes by the Assembly, and there was an election between those two votes. Right? Well, the complaint and the 4-3 ruling, decided that since early voting had already started when the first Assembly vote took place that it didn't really count b/c the election had already started.
So, to make some claim that this was something rammed down the throats of Virginians without them having proper time to consider the implications is plainly ridiculous. The idea that Virginia voters did not have enough time to consider the merits of redistricting when they were voting in November 2025 and again in April 2026 is just dumb.
The Constitution of Virginia states that to change the Constitution of Virginia, the General Assembly must vote on a Constitutional Amendment twice before it goes to a referendum, and that the second time the Assembly votes, it must be after an election between the two votes. So what happened here? In October 2025 the Virginia General Assembly voted to change the Constitution to allow redistricting. In November 2025, Virginia had an election. Then the General Assembly voted again in favor of the change in January. And then in April the people of Virginia approved this change.
So what was the challenge? After all there were 2 votes by the Assembly, and there was an election between those two votes. Right? Well, the complaint and the 4-3 ruling, decided that since early voting had already started when the first Assembly vote took place that it didn't really count b/c the election had already started.
So, to make some claim that this was something rammed down the throats of Virginians without them having proper time to consider the implications is plainly ridiculous. The idea that Virginia voters did not have enough time to consider the merits of redistricting when they were voting in November 2025 and again in April 2026 is just dumb.
So in Ohio, the GOP just ignored a state Supreme Court ruling that their maps were invalid and they just used them anyway. Is there any appetite in VA for this sort of response?
This seems like it should happen. FL just totally ignored their state constitution which has an amendment voted on by the people of FL that bans gerrymandering. OH GOP ignored their state Supreme Court ruling and used their gerrymandered maps anyway. TX didn’t put it up for a vote, TN just passed a horrible gerrymander nakedly aimed at black people in Memphis. We cannot afford to cede power to the GOP on a technicality when they are just bum rushing through breaking laws left and right.
Create an account or login to comment
You must be a member in order to leave a comment
Create account
Create an account on our community. It's easy!
Log in
Already have an account? Log in here.