Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that district lines could be redrawn whenever, not just after the census that occurs once a decade. District lines determine which group of people are voting for which number representative. When the lines are redrawn, it's usually by the party in power at the time (actually, it's always by the party in power at that time), and they have a tendency to draw the lines in their favor, which is less than cool for minorities, which in Texas happens to be the Hispanic population. The plan currently favored by Republicans would split Austin, Texas' most liberal city, into three different solidly Republican districts, dispersing the city's liberal voters into those districts, which would make it unlikely that Austin will bother the state Republican party until the next time the lines are redrawn. Their map has a number of peculiar shapes on it, and can be found with the New York Times article on the issue.
If district lines can be redrawn, why not state lines? We could make New York City part of Kansas and other liberal areas parts of Georgia and Alabama. The voters could be replaced by extra Republican regions from Wyoming and Oklahoma, keeping at least 30 of its electoral votes and go Republican for the first time since any smart people lived there. Or, following the technique used for the 28th district in Texas, we could make all the liberals part of California, and each and every other state could go Republican, because California's electoral power could never grow by enough to offset the 2 votes that every state gets from the senators for no good reason.
The electoral voting system has a flaw, and we should not hesitate to exploit it.
Tags: Politics, Current Events, Current Affairs, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Redistricting, Supreme Court, Bush, Republicans, Minorities, Tom Delay
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