The Media
In the words of my mentor, this space is a "closet" in which I will store all the materials I've collected. This includes interviews, important links and references, graphs and secondary source data....
Redistricting is the process by which districts are redrawn every 10 years according to new census data. Ideally, this would entail the creation of fair districts that accurately represent the political views of the people in each state. However, when state legislatures primarily composed of one party use redistricting as an opportunity to draw districts that purposefully underrepresent members of the opposing party, redistricting becomes Gerrymandering. Gerrymandering can create unfair results (such as those shown above) that can result in the election of a candidate by a majority vote who, in reality, is supported by a minority of voters.
SEARCH BY TAGS:
FOLLOW THE Politalks:
What is VoteSmart?: An interview with my supervisor
Before diving into research and refining my question, it is important to understand what resources are available to me to gather information. As a VoteSmart intern, it seemed logical to seek out my supervisor, Casey Floren, as an unbiased and knowledgable starting point.
RECENT POSTS:
This is what Gerrymandering Looks Like:
For more gerrymandered districts, read the full article:
So what can you do about it?
"In Pennsylvania...this person used my app to build alternative maps to show...[the legislators] didn't have to do it the way they did it"
Dr. Dave Bradlee, a politically-minded software engineer, is the author of Dave's Redistricting, a web application that allows everyday people to design their own redistricting maps. While some politicians and partisan researches contend that unfair redistricting is inevitable do to geographic factors, Dr. Bradlee's app helps citizens dispel this myth, as they use this creative research tool to advocate for just representation through maps of their own.
​
If you don't have a full 25 minutes to hear the whole interview, please refer to the guiding questions attached and skip to the answers you really want to know.
​
​
​
WAIT!
IT's more relevant than you think.
While many people underestimate the importance of state and local elections and might not find redisrticting issues important, the districts drawn by state legislators are the same ones used in the national presidential elections.
Check out the interview podcasts from New York's Leonard Lopate Show linked below: