pages/assets/garden_gerrymandering_index.md.CsB_YWSB.js

import{M as i,q as o,Q as e,K as t,u as r,ar as s,as as n,ag as l,p as c}from"./chunks/framework.Sr2_9k8k.js";import{d as h}from"./chunks/git.data.BcrWSzMU.js";const d=e("h1",{class:"p-name"},"Gerrymandering",-1),p=["innerHTML"],m=e("hr",null,null,-1),u=e("p",null,[t("Gerrymandering, or the deliberate outlining of voting districts in order to consolidate or spread out voters who you expect to vote similarly to each other, is typically portrayed as an unambiguously unfair thing to do. And I (typically) agree! But there are some interesting caveats that illustrate how illusory our concept of fairness really is, that demonstrate it is in fact a "),e("a",{href:"/garden/social-constructs/"},"Social Construct"),t(". For example, Louisiana's most recent redistricting (in 2024) stirred up controversy for a new district, district 6, being drawn with very weird borders, specifically to ensure it has a majority of black voters who were previously more spread out across the districts. This is classic gerrymandering that makes it so that voting bloc determines the result of that district and the one already existing majority black district, but has nominal impact on any of the other 4 districts. But this process is actually being argued to be more fair to black voters, because previous congressional maps, despite appearing more fair, were not very proportional to race by only having 1 majority black district versus 5 majority white districts. This is the racial composition of Louisiana based on census data from 2017 to 2021, and the new congressional map highlighting the 2 districts that are majority black:")],-1),g=e("div",{class:"img-container"},[e("img",{src:s,title:"louisiana-population-by-race.jpeg"})],-1),y=e("div",{class:"img-container"},[e("img",{src:n,title:"LA-New-Cong-Map-1024x885.webp"})],-1),f=l('<p>Having 2 districts means black voters are represented by 1/3 of the districts, which is remarkably proportional, considering they make up 32% of the population. In this way, the gerrymandering is being employed to make the district representation more proportional by race, which groups like the NAACP argue makes them more fair. I agree with their assessment and think this will make Louisiana much more fair, and that&#39;s awesome. Naturally, it is being sued for its obvious gerrymandering however, with arguments that it is making the election less fair, under the definition that gerrymandering is intrinsically unfair.</p><p>Both sides of the argument are dealing with conflicting definitions of fairness. Determining it based on how close to square each district ends up is just as arbitrary as making them proportional by race. They could have been proportional by age or party or hobby. And in any case, 6 representatives means the proportions are going to be very crude proportions in anyways - the racial composition showed no other races reached the ~1/6 of a population required to be given a single representative, so is it &quot;fair&quot; that they don&#39;t get any representative of their own? And is it even fair to be treating racial demographics as a monolithic voting blocs in the first place? Sure those two districts are gerrymandered to be majority black, but what if they&#39;re also all the black voters that voted a specific way, and the ones who voted another way are the ones still spread out across the majority white districts?</p><p>These are not new insights, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/11/18/1194448925/congress-proportional-representation-explainer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">in</a> <a href="https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/proportional-representation-reimagining-american-elections-to-combat-gerrymandering/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">fact</a> <a href="https://protectdemocracy.org/work/proportional-representation-competitiveness/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">many</a> <a href="https://fairvote.org/archives/how-proportional-representation-would-finally-solve-our-redistricting-and-gerrymandering-problems/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">argue</a> <a href="https://www.brennancenter.