ProPublica
The national picture:
- REDMAP 2012 Summary Report
- ProPublica: House Seats vs. Popular Vote
- A chart!
- RNC chief backs electoral college scheme
And in the states:
Election process toolkit
-
Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:41 PM EST
— Filed under: redistricting
Leave a Comment:
I followed the elections with this toolkit and Google tool.
Hakan@Miami
These gop/tp Goofballs need to be thrown out on their arses RITE-NOW ! It should be made ILLEGAL for Any of them to be in Any office - Period ! Anti-American Nazi's ! Ship them ALL to Gitmo for America's Sake !
Please, please, PLEASE tell me you were going for irony there
As I keep saying, we Texas Democrats are systematically cheated out of representation.
Of all the critical issues affecting the US, is not gerrymandering THE most serious?
The elections have smelled bad since Bush Jr. Do we really have to wait until a couple months before the next election time to drum up concern for the most foundational principle We, the People have to stand on, free elections?
http://www.fairvote.org/redistricting
I still think the biggest issue is campaign finance reform.
But gerrymandering is up in the top five.
yes we are gary yes we are..funny how they scream short term people when they elect people for life
Americans who are concerned about their representative democracy would be well advised to consider supporting the Renew Democracy Amendment proposal. It states:
"The right of the individual qualified citizen voter to participate in and directly elect all candidates by popular vote in all pertinent local, state, and federal elections shall not be denied or abridged and the right to vote is limited to individuals.
The right to contribute to political campaigns and political parties is held solely by individual citizens.
Political campaign and political party contributions shall not exceed an amount reasonably affordable by the average American.
The rights of all groups, associations and organizations to other political speech may be regulated by Congress but only as to volume and not content and only to protect the right of the individual voter’s voice to be heard."
The Renew Democracy Amendment would create a constitutional guarantee of the right to vote and directly elect all candidates for whom they were qualified to vote. It would eliminate the Electoral College and it would restore the power of the individual voter by requiring our representatives to be funded solely by the individual voter. The RDA would create a campaign funding system in which nearly any American could be a politician's largest donor.
A constitutional amendment could be stopped by states with as little as 3% of the U.S. population.
The National Popular Vote bill already has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 states with 243 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 9 jurisdictions with 132 electoral votes - 49% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. There would no longer be a handful of 'battleground' states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in 80% of the states that now are just 'spectators' and ignored after the conventions.
When the bill is enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes– enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538), all the electoral votes from the enacting states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.
The presidential election system that we have today was not designed, anticipated, or favored by the Founding Fathers but, instead, is the product of decades of evolutionary change precipitated by the emergence of political parties and enactment by 48 states of winner-take-all laws, not mentioned, much less endorsed, in the Constitution.
The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for President. Historically, virtually all of the major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action.
In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided). Support for a national popular vote is strong among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group in virtually every state surveyed in recent polls in recent closely divided Battleground states: CO – 68%, FL – 78%, IA 75%, MI – 73%, MO – 70%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM– 76%, NC – 74%, OH – 70%, PA – 78%, VA – 74%, and WI – 71%; in Small states (3 to 5 electoral votes): AK – 70%, DC – 76%, DE – 75%, ID – 77%, ME – 77%, MT – 72%, NE 74%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM – 76%, OK – 81%, RI – 74%, SD – 71%, UT – 70%, VT – 75%, WV – 81%, and WY – 69%; in Southern and Border states: AR – 80%, KY- 80%, MS – 77%, MO – 70%, NC – 74%, OK – 81%, SC – 71%, TN – 83%, VA – 74%, and WV – 81%; and in other states polled: AZ – 67%, CA – 70%, CT – 74%, MA – 73%, MN – 75%, NY – 79%, OR – 76%, and WA – 77%. Americans believe that the candidate who receives the most votes should win.
NationalPopularVote
Follow National Popular Vote on Facebook via NationalPopularVoteInc
The redistricting process is well known to Dems so the fact that Republicans drew gerrymandered maps is not a surprise. What is a surprise is that the redistricting process by many of these states were not challenged in federal courts. It is incumbent on the state and central party to insure that Dems have access to independent consultant experts that can analyze proposed maps even if Dems are in an extremely red state. Let us hope that the lawsuit in NC is a springboard for suits in the other states. Dems were asleep at the wheel.
Mike- if you're from Illinois- that is where the practice was invented. The gerrymandering by the party in charge was obscene- it was taken to court by the opposition, but to no avail. Of course, this situation wouldn't be of concern on this blog because the party that is acting in a way that this blog fiinds offensive is the Democratic Party. But- through these means, Illinois is solidly a one-party state- and Democrats from all over can be proud of how effective it is- possibly a model for Obama.
Gerrymandering is a universally partisan process chucklehead. Look at Arizona where the people voted to not have that happen through purely partisan officials and the GOP governor said nope. We're going to rig that. You can't pin the use of gerrymandering on either side it just so happens the GOP benefitted this round.
Rusty,
Gerrymandering was invented in Massachusetts, not Illinois.
And the practice is so widespread it is surprising when a large state achieves proportional representation, such as New York. Must have been an accident. ;-)
(Small population states don't figure into this type of analysis, for it is impossible to gerrymander a state with a single representative.)
Ok- point taken on where it was invented. Illinois has just been able to take it to all new heights. I was in the 17th District after the 2000 Census. The district started in the Quad Cities, ran south for about 150 miles along the river, taking in about 1,000 people (no clue as to the actual number- but a few small river towns) to Quincy, where it took an abrupt Eastern turn and rand basically along the meridian of Interstate 72 another 200 miles to where it ended in Decatur. Oddest looking district ever- encompassing parts of 4 totally unrelated metro areas (QC, Quincy, Springfield and Decatur). Funny part was that it was a long time Democratic safe district, but a tea party guy won it in 2010. Then it was re-districted again, and this guy lost in 2012.
I know it's not the noble thing to do, but regardless: Somebody should remind Pennsylvania just how much money they got this time around from the presidential campaigns. That would dry up almost entirely.
I want to know how can a complaint/lawsuit be filed with the Justice Department for the GOP confiscating our election process because what good does mean to have Voting Rights? Being from Red State Texas (Austin, TX) and a victim of gerrymeandering voting district lines down here, prevent my vote from even counting. I voted in the November election as a progressive Democrat, but knowing that my vote did not even count because the GOP have drawn these slithering snake voting district lines that are horrendously depriving sovereign U.S. citizens votes from having the sovereign power that the Constitution guarantees me. If nothing can be done about the Electoral phase of voting, then why don't votes be counted just on the popular/majority voting? I expect legal probing into this matter be done or why did we defeat we defeat the tyrannical British Empire, if we are going to be dictated to by the criminally monstrous thievery of the special interest that are prostituting the public servants that took the oath to PRESERVE, PROTECT, and DEFEND the Constitution of the United States of America? The term PRIVITIZATION means the overthrowing of This Government OF The People, BY The People, FOR The People that will not perish from the Earth (until the return of Jesus Christ). It is time that ALL Americans to stand up and throwdown the criminal wave by the special interest, who have paid their lawyers to find loopholes to STEAL our tax surplus dollars and hide them in these offshore tax haven sheltered accounts. They want to destroy the various Department of our Excutive Branch of Government that is there to protect the ENTITLEMENT of ALL Americans. We must uphold our various Unions because they are the modern day Continental and Militia armies that fight for the right of Americans to have access to the American Dream. As President Obama plainly stated THE RIGHT TO WORK clause that is spreading throughout our sovereign Nation is actually THE RIGHT TO WORK TO THE BOTTOM which is to the state of poverty; which is not what the Preamble of our Constitution guarantees us... Reverend Ira L Lewis, Austin, TX, trirason@gmail.com. Thank You.
If Republicans are going to fix election outcomes can they at least have sensible ideas?
You would hate for people to go through all of the trouble by illegally changing things only to have horrible ideas put into effect when they "win" the races
If they had good ideas, they could get elected fairly and wouldn't have to rig the elections.
It is a riot - you liberals whine more about the election than the Republicans do- lol- do you want some cheese with your whine?
I bet we didn't whine as much as you did when Mutt Romney lost!
We just hate it when the other team cheats...and keeps getting caught...it must be a congenital DNA governed character defect
Dragoon...where were you when it was your team that was cheating and winning?
just asking....
More fact-free propaganda from the Stormtrooper.
Entropy...funny that you should make that accusation, since the article that is linked to in this blog SPECIFICALLY talks about how the Democrats have done the exact same thing...obviously, you are more about making baseless accusations than you actually researching matters before opening your mouth.
Next time, do the research so that you don't look as foolish as Whom or Larry. Granted, that is hard to do, but you are well on your way.
just saying...
Bollocks. Quit stroking yourself in public.
Ken- hope you didn't bet too much. If you did- the evidence is above, and in untold other blogs on MSNBC. I've never heard the winning team whine so much in my entire life- it is about as funny as anything I've ever heard.
Just sit back and look at it- then chuckle a little about your liberal buddies. Learn to laugh at yourself- heck- us coonservatives often laugh at you liberals...
I have yet to encounter someone on the right who didn't desperately need to get over himself or herself.
How can I donate my $50 to help? I am surprised NOT to find a "Donate Now" button, but, hey, that's Rachel.
I was wondering why doesn't a Democrat switch parties and run as a republican in these gerrymandering states? It worked (in reverse) for Mayor Bloomberg here in NYC. It will give the "new" republican a chance to talk republicans to hear some reality for a change. At the very least it may force a primary runoff! If the "new" republican is gaining some traction, it might scare the "old" republicans into not trying this garbage.
How in the world do we out here in America get this stopped? Can the Justice Dept. do something about this? We can't have the Republicans steal our elections from now on. We need to do something now!!!
If they could it would take Eric Holder a whole hell of a long to get around to doing it. It's a shame he's not leaving, he really needs to.
We absolutely have to get out the vote in midterm and state elections. These are the only places the repubs have an advantage. The only reason they have this advantage is because they turn out to vote in these elections.
Regarding the NY Times editorial (that conservative bastion of the right- lol)- maybe Obama could send in drones to "rid" these states of Republoicans?
Gerrymandering at its worst. One more reason we need to elect the President by the popular vote. We're half way there via the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). Readers should contact their state governors and legislatures to ask that they support or enact legislation for their state to join the NPVIC. With work, we could have a Presidential elected by popular vote as soon as 2016.
For more information:
http://www.NationalPopularVote.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact
Rachel should do a story on the NPVIC.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. There would no longer be a handful of 'battleground' states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in 80% of the states that now are just 'spectators' and ignored after the conventions.
When the bill is enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes– enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538), all the electoral votes from the enacting states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.
The presidential election system that we have today was not designed, anticipated, or favored by the Founding Fathers but, instead, is the product of decades of evolutionary change precipitated by the emergence of political parties and enactment by 48 states of winner-take-all laws, not mentioned, much less endorsed, in the Constitution.
The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for President. Historically, virtually all of the major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action.
In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided). Support for a national popular vote is strong among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group in virtually every state surveyed in recent polls in recent closely divided Battleground states: CO – 68%, FL – 78%, IA 75%, MI – 73%, MO – 70%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM– 76%, NC – 74%, OH – 70%, PA – 78%, VA – 74%, and WI – 71%; in Small states (3 to 5 electoral votes): AK – 70%, DC – 76%, DE – 75%, ID – 77%, ME – 77%, MT – 72%, NE 74%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM – 76%, OK – 81%, RI – 74%, SD – 71%, UT – 70%, VT – 75%, WV – 81%, and WY – 69%; in Southern and Border states: AR – 80%, KY- 80%, MS – 77%, MO – 70%, NC – 74%, OK – 81%, SC – 71%, TN – 83%, VA – 74%, and WV – 81%; and in other states polled: AZ – 67%, CA – 70%, CT – 74%, MA – 73%, MN – 75%, NY – 79%, OR – 76%, and WA – 77%. Americans believe that the candidate who receives the most votes should win.
The bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 states with 243 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 9 jurisdictions with 132 electoral votes - 49% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.
NationalPopularVote
Follow National Popular Vote on Facebook via NationalPopularVoteInc
That assumes that all of those states vote for the same candidate. For this to work properly, regardless of method used, the same system MUST be in place for ALL electors in EVERY state, territory and possession.
Ronald,
The whole point of the state bills would be for the participating states to award their electors to the candidate winning the national popular vote. So if, say, Colin Powell runs and wins the national vote each of the participating states would award him all their electors whether or not Mr. Powell won any individual state.
(Example: Powell wins California by a landslide, say 3 million votes, but loses every other state by a small margin, say 10,000 votes. Powell will win the national vote by 2.5 million votes and be awarded at least 270 electors by the states participating in the national vote scheme, even though he lost in all but possibly one of them.)
I'm staring at the map in sort of disgust & worry. Is that all we're going to do? Aren't there groups or something to challenge gerrymandering the frigin presidential race? Voter rights advocates? Obama's brilliant "ground game". Our own "Bluemap"? @!$%#.
I could go along with this proposal IF they were to eliminate Congressional Districts altogether AND the change were to occur in EVERY State of the Union all at the same time. The House is supposed to be representative of the PEOPLE, not the land they occupy.
How would you elect people to the House you say? How about having the electorate vote by for a particular PARTY and have the part select the representatives it would send to congress. Each party would get to send a representative based upon their proportional win in the election. Say the R's got 40%, the D's got 38% and the Greens got 22%. Then we'd actually have 3rd party members of Congress.
My first thought is, this REDSTATE strategy, is so anti democratic, it must be unconstitutional...could this really happen? Will it have to go to the supreme court? And what can we do about some states creating laws to deny access to women's health care rights? Will we need the National Guard to step in to keep abortion doctors safe, they way the National Guard once helped an 8 year old girl go to school. What has happened to our nation/to our union?
So, where to I go to fight this one...the REDSTATE strategy, in a political arena... before more people die. I am asking.
Gerrymandering is an old practice that is rarely successfully challenged in the courts. Basically, the courts consider it part of the political process, and do not want to get involved (for fear that some of the stink will end up on them).
I once saw a GOP controlled Illinois state house redraw an assembly district so it ran along a row of houses, on one side of a city street, for half a mile so it could end at the house of a Democratic incumbent they wanted to eliminate. It worked.
(This was before the Illinois GOP leadership all either ended up in prison or had to retire from politics due to the frequenting of certain sex clubs.)
lol- that's the first time I ever thought of Illinois as being ran by a bunch of jail breaking Republicans. Last I looked- it was like 6-1, Democrat Governors in prison verses Republican Governors. The interesting thing- the Republican Governor won as many Nobel Peace Prizes as Obama. Maybe Obama can end up as cell-mates with Blago
Rusty,
Jim Edgar (R) was governor during the redistricting and George Ryan (R) was the next governor, who is now sitting in federal prison and is listed as Federal Inmate Number 16627-424. BTW, Ryan was prosecuted by a Republican US Attorney, who described Ryan's behavior as "a low-water mark in the history of public service." Something like 70 public officials and party functionaries were convicted in the scandal as well.
As for the sex scandals, a noteworthy example is that of Jack Ryan (the GOP politician formerly married to Jeri Ryan, not the fictional character). You have to research that one on your own, for it is too bizarre to be believable from a blog post.
Democrats have held power in the state since.
Sure. George was crooked. I find you, though, to be misleading- to the extent you seem to know about Illinois politics and speak of GOP Leadership all being in prison or having attended a sex club. As you are well aware- Governors Kerner, Walker, and lately, Blago are all Democrat Govs who were all convicted and sent to prison. Jim Ryan was AG- and your boy, Blago defeated him for Gov. You should be proud of that t%rd.
Interesting that the Republicans are bragging that "hey we gamed the system so the majority didn't rule!" in America......a representative democracy......"high fives all around"
Disturbing.
You can go to the White House web site and look under the AG, see where they're investigating the GOP for voter fraud and Karl Rowe's organization..We won't hear this on network News and Rachel can only fit in so many stories in an hour..Thank goodness for Rachel and Ed, Lawrence and Martin at 4PM..Where else would we get truth?
Interesting how Democrats werent complaining about gerrymandering when it was them who were in charge and doing the exact same thing...
just saying...
Really? Took 'em long enough. I think the fact that Rove's group is legally a 501C4 or "social welfare" organization for taxation purposes even though 501's are not supposed to do political spending. That's fraud isn't it? They outta go after that too but unfortunately I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they were not. It took Holder way too long to challenge those voter id laws in court when they were passed years before the election. In my opinion he did not act swiftly enough. Combine that with HSBC getting off the hook with a tiny fine for money laudering for threats and enemies to America, domestic as well as abroad. If doing mafia style banking with drug cartels, terrorist groups, and Iran isn't a crime I don't know what is. Sadly the Obama administration through Holder has also not held a single one of the corrupt financial institutions that blew up the market legally accountable at all. They even failed to leverage the banks on the homeowner relief compensation program. The fed should have been able to way more, rightfully, than they did. It appears to me atleast that they did not really try.
Bottom line is that Eric Holder needs to go, he has not proven effective unfortunately. He's tried but I think he's simply failed.
There's nothing extraordinary about gerrymandering and it's not the point that's troubling. The fact that the GOP seems to have adopted a strategy to change so many of these election laws in a way that they admit is purely political. They're proud of that. They're bragging that they still won though they got less votes over all in public. Look politicians are politicians, we all know what's going on but gosh atleast respect the people enough to pretend you care about them. We know they're all fake and selfish but don't remind us lol
It's like acting, you know in the first place it's totally fake but if the performers don't seem believable then the show ends up sucking. We know it's fake but we don't want to be reminded.
With those on the right, "just saying" means they are lying, they know it, and they are proud of themselves for it.
Entropy....please find one lie in any of my statements and prove it to be such....are you up to the challenge? Doubtful...
JUST SAYING...
Stormguy53 is not EntropyRules up to the challenge. Can only remark abusively without evidence to refute.
That is EntropyRules is not up to the challenge.
Dr....I know...but I always like to give these lemming a chance to show how smart they are..as you can tell...they aren't very....
just saying...
O look, it's a troll circle jerk...how cute!
Der Herr Doktor might call us "Democrates" again...I'm quaking! (guffaw)
EntropyRules
Thanks for providing more data, 2 more points. I you DEMOCRATES keep this up I will have enough to complete my study.
Stormguy53,
EntropyRules will be okay, being smart is not a requirement for Barry followers.
Rather funny that even when he does come back and comment, it is just more name calling as opposed to presenting any facts to refute my statements. I guess that is an indication that he can't do it...
no surprise...
just saying...
CC- wonder if you have any comment on the report from Fiat that they are goiing to start building Jeeps in China. Newest report says 100,000 to 200,000 Jeeps a year. Discussing elections- you'll remember Chrysler denied this when Romney made the claim- and 52% of Americans believed Obama when he supported Chryslers statement.
LIAR LIAR LIAR...
oh wait, that is the truth...
I bet we dont hear any apology from the left on that one...
just saying...
"...I you DEMOCRATES..."
Gibberish, lies, misrepresentiations...the stock in trade among those on the right. They routinely prove that they are devoid of conscience and incapable of shame. AMF.
Entropy- are you saying it is a lie that Jeep is indeed going to start producing in China, or are you saying Team Obama lied when they contradicted that claim? When your side is in the middle of being proven wrong when they claimed something was a ie- it is normally not good to continue the offensive. Just sit back and smile- knowing that Team Obama was able to successfully label the truth as a lie to create good fortune on their end.
EntropyRules is there a topic you wish to discuss or are you here just to banter?
How can America trust polls after the games they played with the public trust in Obama vs Mittens? Media is now owned by only Corporations who care for profits over humanity! We used to have 50+ private media owners. Media ownership regulations were changed by this GOP, and all media is now owned by less then 6 Corporations. They've had 30 years of systematic laws changing the country while baby boomers were at work, laws that most people aren't even aware of. Time to pay attention to what this GOP did. While they robbed the US treasury, created debt in 10 years this party now demands "it be paid back in 1-4 years or they'll tank our economy or worse"?? GOP chronically attempted to strangle women's health care rights. GOP 1% Nazi party is hurting women, minorities and American freedom even to vote right under our noses. They claim they're for Rights, but they take rights and give voices to rabid misinformed people, and they're using Fox to do it. America better wake up and vote in 2014. This GOP scares sane people! Voting is all we have left, use it in 2014 as if your rights to vote depend on it, they really do!
Thanks Maddow for bring the gerry meandering issue to the front. Legally the Republicans can gerry meander away the Democracy in our "Democratic/Republic" American democracy is not a "right" defined in the constitution as far as I can tell. If the American people don't wake up and fight it they will wake up one morning and find out they live in a two bit banana "Republic" where the majority is ruled by a minority.
Democrats fighting for free elections help honest Republicans too...this is absolutely a nonpartisan issue.
Everyone should give a huge damn about our elections. There's examples all over the world of what happens to the masses under one party rule. All the wealth and privilage goes straight to the top and stays there.
It. Can. Happen. Here.
Nebraska has been splitting their electoral college votes for years. Obviously, the whole electoral college is internationally recognized American stupidity. What ever happened to one person one vote? So, my opinion is that either all the states split their electoral votes, or none of them do. And that would take, yeah, you guessed it, Federal meddling in state affairs. But is it really a state affair? Not when it effects the federal congress and effects actual fair balance of representation in that congress, especially in the house. So the solution is either 1. a federal legislation to end the electoral college completely (back to one person one vote) or 2. make all of the states split their electoral votes. When they are done doing one of those solutions, they can immediately tackle jerrymandering because nothing will work fairly in elections until the Fed ends jerrymandering. So in case you are wondering why your State elected President Obama, but the GOP "took the House" it wasn't because most of the people voted that way. Surprised?
One of the reasons why the Electoral College has remained in effect for all of these years is because it is assumed that all of the swing states that benefit so greatly from the attention and advertising dollars, that no politician from these states would advocate eliminating it. However, if the state republicans are willing to sacrifice the attention and money that comes from these contests, then they can not logically oppose shifting to a popular vote, at least not on those grounds. This could be a unique opportunity to push for the elimination of the Electoral College. Sign the petition at:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/eliminate-electoral-college-and-allow-american-people-elect-their-president-direct-popular-vote/KWPWPkTH
Let's make this the first petition to hit the new threshold of 100k signatures.
Oops. Didn't mean to make the whole thing a link, but hey, it kind of adds to the whole sense of urgency