District judges have struck a blow against the practice of gerrymandering – the deliberate manipulation of voting boundaries to favour one party over another – in a ruling that could reverberate across the US. A court in Wisconsin said on Monday that state assembly voting districts drawn up by Republicans five years ago are unconstitutional and violate the rights of Democrats. The ruling has no bearing on the 2016 presidential election, in which Donald Trump scored a surprise victory over Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin, taking its 10 electoral college votes, but could lead to a precedent that will affect future US House races. “I feel enormous excitement about what this potentially might mean for American democracy,” said Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a professor at the University of Chicago law school, who argued the case in court. “One of the worst aspects of our democracy has been the presence of partisan gerrymandering.” This is the first time in 30 years that a court has taken a stand against it, Stephanopoulos added. “If the supreme court upholds this decision, there could be very positive and dramatic consequences in states all over the country where gerrymandering has happened.”
The Wisconsin case was described by voters who brought the case as the worst example of gerrymandering in modern history, turning what would otherwise be majority votes for Democrats in the state assembly into big Republican victories.
Republicans drew the maps in 2011 after they took full control of state government in the 2010 elections. According to American Prospect, the redistricting plan was “conceived in tight secrecy behind a private law firm’s closed doors as part of a large-scale national Republican strategy to block Democrats from power through the careful manipulation of state legislative district lines”.
The disputed maps divide Wisconsin into 99 assembly and 32 senate districts. A dozen voters sued last year, arguing that the boundaries discriminated against Democrats by diluting their voting power. In 2012, for example, Democrats won more votes in Wisconsin assembly races than Republicans did, yet Democrats only won 39 of 99 seats in the chamber.
Full Article: Wisconsin rules GOP gerrymandering violates Democrats’ rights | US news | The Guardian.