Voting: Part III
Voting
• Gerrymandering:
Practice of drawing electoral district lines in
order to limit the voting strength of a particular
group or party
District lines are boundaries of the geographic
area from which a candidate is elected to a
public office
Originally used to disenfranchise African
Americans
Voting
• Gerrymandering:
Gerrymandering is a form of redistribution in
which electoral district or constituency
boundaries are deliberately modified for
electoral advantage. Gerrymandering may be
used to help or hinder particular constituents,
such as members of a political, racial,
linguistic, religious or class group.
Gerrymandering
• Original cartoon of "The
Gerry-Mander", this is the
political cartoon that led to
the coining of the term
Gerrymander. The district
depicted in the cartoon
was created by
Massachusetts legislature
to favor the incumbent
Democratic-Republican
party candidates of
Governor Elbridge Gerry
over the Federalists in
1812.
Gerrymandering
 Gerrymandering is used most often in favor of
ruling incumbents[2] or a specific political party.
Societies whose legislatures use a single-winner
voting system are the most likely to have political
parties that gerrymander for advantage
 Most notably, gerrymandering is particularly
effective in non-proportional systems that tend
towards fewer parties, such as first past the post.
non-proportional systems
• A vote with multiple winners
• election of a legislature
• different practical effects than a singlewinner vote.
• participants in a multiple winner election
are more concerned with the overall
composition of the legislature than exactly
which candidates get elected
non-proportional systems
• many multiple-winner systems aim for
proportional representation, which means
that if a given party (or any other political
grouping) gets X% of the vote, it should
also get approximately X% of the seats in
the legislature
first past the post
• The term first past the post (abbreviated FPTP or
FPP) was coined as an analogy to horse racing,
where the winner of the race is the first to pass a
particular point on the track (in this case a
plurality of votes), after which all other runners
automatically and completely lose (that is, the
payoff is "winner-takes-all"). There is, however,
no "post" that the winning candidate must pass in
order to win, as they are only required to receive
the largest number of votes in their favour.
Voting Systems
• Most democracies have partly proportional
electoral systems, where several political
parties are proportionally represented in
the national parliaments, in proportion to
the total numbers of votes of the parties in
the regional or national elections. In these
more or less proportional representation
systems, gerrymandering has little or less
significance.
Gerrymandering
• Packing & Cracking:
The two aims of gerrymandering are to
maximize the effect of supporters’ votes
and to minimize the effect of opponents'
votes
Gerrymandering
• Arizona's 2nd congressional district contains the
northwestern corner of the state, and some of the western
suburbs of Phoenix as well as a small western portion of
Phoenix itself. The odd shape of the district is indicative of
the use of gerrymandering in its construction. The unusual
division was not, however, drawn to favor politicians.
Owing to historic tensions between the Hopi and the
Navajo, and since tribal boundary disputes are a Federal
matter, it was thought inappropriate that both tribes should
be represented by the same U.S. House of Representatives
member. Since the Hopi reservation is completely
surrounded by the Navajo reservation, and in order to
comply with current Arizona redistricting laws, some
means of connection was required that avoided including
large portions of Navajo land, hence the narrow riverine
connection.
Voting
• Packing & Cracking:
One strategy, packing, is to concentrate as
many voters of one type into a single electoral
district to reduce their influence in other
districts.
In some cases this may be done to obtain
representation for a community of common
interest, rather than to dilute that interest over
several districts to a point of ineffectiveness
Voting
• Packing & Cracking:
 A second strategy, cracking, involves spreading out
voters of a particular type among many districts in
order to deny them a sufficiently large voting block in
any particular district.
 The strategies are typically combined, creating a few
"forfeit" seats for packed voters of one type in order to
secure even greater representation for voters of
another type
Voting
• Packing & Cracking:
 Gerrymandering is effective because of the wasted
vote effect. By packing opposition voters into districts
they will already win (increasing excess votes for
winners) and by cracking the remainder among
districts where they are moved into the minority
(increasing votes for eventual losers), the number of
wasted votes among the opposition can be maximized.
Similarly, with supporters holding narrow margins in
the unpacked districts, the number of wasted votes
among supporters is minimized.
wasted vote effect
• In the study of electoral systems, a wasted vote
may be defined in 2 different ways:
1. any vote which is not for an elected candidate.
2. any vote which does not help to elect a candidate.
• The first definition includes only those votes
which are for losing candidates (individual or
party). The second definition is wider as it also
includes surplus votes for winning candidates
who would have won anyway without the wasted
vote.
wasted vote effect
• An electoral system which reduces the
number of wasted votes can be considered
desirable on grounds of fairness or on the
more pragmatic basis that a voter who feels
their vote has made no difference may feel
detached from their government or lose
confidence in the democratic process
wasted vote effect
• In election campaigns, a leading candidate
may appeal to voters who support a lesspopular candidate to vote instead for them
for tactical reasons, on the basis that a vote
for their preferred candidate is likely to be
wasted. In some electoral systems, it may be
plausible for less-popular candidates may
make similar appeals to supporters of morepopular candidates
Wasted Vote effect
• Opponents of the concept of a wasted vote
point out that voting one's conscience is
fundamental to democracy - an example of
this is the adoption of major Socialist
legislation by more mainstream parties in
the United States in order to halt the
Socialist party
Voting
• Nonvoters
Idiot-Greek word referring to those citizens
who did not vote or otherwise take part in
public life.
Millions of Americans who do not vote!!!!
Voting
• Figures/Trends:
2004-217.8 million persons of voting age in US
120.2 million actually voted = 55.2%
Even lower rates of turnout exist in off-year
elections
General Election greater than mid-term
election
Voting
• Ballot Fatigue:
Every state, more votes cast in presidential
election, than gubernatorial election
More votes are cast for governor than for other
state wide offices
More voters vote for state wide offices than
county positions.
Non Voters
• “Cannot-voters”
10 million residential aliens, barred from polls
from every state
5 to 6 million citizens are ill or physically
disabled
2 to 3 million sudden travel
Thousands of other mentally incapacitated or in
incarcerated, or don’t vote for religious beliefs
Non-Voters
• Actual Nonvoters:
80 million people who could have voted but
chose not to
Political Efficacy-They do not believe that
their vote can have any real impact on what
government does
No matter who wins things will continue to go well
or vice versa
Non-Voters
• Other Factors:
Difficult election procedures
Registration requirements
Long ballots
Long lines at the polling places
Time zone fallout!!!
Lack of Interest
Voters
• Characteristics(Higher levels):
 Income
 Education
 Occupational status
 Integration into
community
 Party identification
 Self-efficacy
Non-Voters
• Characteristics:
 Younger than 35
 Unmarried
 Unskilled
 Rural areas
 man
Voter Behaviors
• Sociological factors:
 High income-Republican,
Low income-Democrat
 College Graduates-Republican
 Woman-Democrats(abortion, healthcare, social
assistance)
 Younger Voters-Democrat
 Protestant-Republicans
Catholics, Jews-Democrats
 South, Midwest-Republican
Northeast, Great Lakes, West Coast-Democrat
Voter Behaviors
• Psychological Factors:
Party Identification, vote for the party
(straight-ticket voting)
Increase in split-ticket voting
Increase in number of independents
Non-voters
• Time Zone Fall Out
 Polls in Eastern &
Central Time Zones
fall before Western &
Pacific
 Outcomes in the
election can be
projected before polls
close in the west