Gerrymandering in NC

Lance, a fellow subject of the North Carolina Royal Government took issue with my recent post complaining about the government who reins supreme in North Carolina, saying:

"Royals"? Try democratically elected officials.

Ah, but that's not the case in North Carolina. The districts here are so severely gerrymandered as to ensure the outcomes of nearly every race before the election even happens. And the laws are twisted enough that it's nearly impossible to even be permitted to write in candidates -- remember, this is the state that recently, AFTER election filing, determined that you're not allowed to be registered with the Libertarian Party.

Here's an analysis of just one area: the North Carolina Senate.

The Senate is currently ruled by Democrats (and has NEVER had a Republican Majority). However, in 2004, the most recent election for the Senate, 3,118,224 people voted for Senator. 48.9% voted for Democrats. 49.6% voted for Republicans (46,960 voted Libertarian or other). If it were truly a Democracy, there would be 50 Senators from each party (or 24 D, 25 R and 1 L). However, there are THIRTY Democrat and only 20 Republican. How?

Easy: Gerrymandering.

In that election there were 50 seats up for election. Of those 50 races, only FIVE had less than a 7 percent margin of victory for the winner. 43 people who won were complete landslides. There were 13 races where there was ZERO opposition. In those 13 races, the average number of votes cast was 48,554. 7 of those races were won by Democrats, 6 by Republicans.

EVERY single Republican who won had a higher than average number of votes. EVERY single Democrat who won had a lower than average number of votes. This is a process known as "stacking" districts. Take the large numbers of Republican voters and put them all in the same, larger district to dilute their vote. Take the same number of Democrats and spread them over a larger number of districts, to increase their votes.

It's called Gerrymandering, and it explains why your vote doesn't really matter -- because the legislators are selecting their constituents so you CANNOT vote for the person you want -- you have to "vote" for the person the parties and the legislators select.

You can call a pile if crap a rose, but that doesn't make it smell any better, does it? You can call this the "Democratic Process" if you like, but that doesn't make it so.

Posted by: Ogre at 02:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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