Since 1960s, some U.S. states have maintained old rules or tightened them, while others have granted more rights. Today, people actually sitting in prison lose the right to vote in 48 of the 50 states (all except Maine and Vermont). Denying the right to vote to an entire class of citizens is deeply problematic to a democratic society and counterproductive to effective reentry into being a human with ‘civic duties’. But current prisoners only represent about one-fourth of the 6.1 million disenfranchised. The rest are either probationers under supervision in their communities, or people on parole after serving their prison sentences from soup to nuts.
Political Parties serve a crucial role in congressional campaigns, especially for candidate recruitment. One significant role political parties serve is the state law of redistricting, “Because the composition of House districts can make the difference between winning and losing, the two major parties and individual politicians, particularly incumbents, often fight fierce battles in state legislatures over the alignment of districts.” (Smith, et al., 2007). Similar to my previous discussion, the congressional district map is crucial to the success of political parties and gerrymandering is just apart of the nature of political parties. In order for political parties to completely reap the benefits of their constituents, they must draw a map that serves their best interest. The drawings usually consist of cracking or packing to provide a certain party a political advantage over the opposing party.
The Electoral College system the founding fathers devised helps to balance out the power of the large, populous states. This system forces candidates to campaign in all states since they all carry some sway in the elections (“Understanding the Presidential Election”). However, other issues present themselves as well, like states with large independent voters that can be swayed and the issue that a candidate can lose the popular vote and win the election. The first issue is that states that are equally divided between democrats and republicans and hold a large number of electoral votes like Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania are considered swing states. (“Understanding the Presidential Election”) Candidates tend to spend a large portion of their time in these types of states to try and convert independents and members of the opposite party to vote for them.
Gerrymandering is a strategic way of making sure party members get what they want when it comes to voting. As citizens, the only thing that we can do to help fight against gerrymandering would be to use our legislative powers and fight for more transparent and public system within their states to hold elected officials accountable. Even if we were able to fix gerrymandering, it still would not be enough to fix gridlock. If we were able to fix gridlock, it still would not solve close to any of the problems rooted in Washington. It seems as though we are waiting for the problems to fix themselves, but we need to realize it isn't a problem that can fix itself.
Gerrymandering is basically manipulating district lines in order to give an unfair advantage to one party over the other. Lines are redrawn to favor a political party, and with gerrymandering there is no competition and the candidate for the district is already elected even before people cast their votes Why does Amy want proportional representation? Amy wants proportional representation because he believes that in doing so gerrymandering could be stopped, there would be more diverse options when it comes to political parties, more people would turn out to vote, and because there would be more equal representation for females and minorities Why is Rush not in favor of a proportional representation? Rush is not in favor of proportional representation because in order for a proportional representation to succeed other parts of the government need to change, and with those changes other things would sacrificed. There would be a ripple effect on the rest of the government if there was a switch to the PR system.
Given the legal nature of the gerrymandering issue, there is an extensive legal background on the issue since the ninetieth century. This literature review gives the more relevant legal background regarding Pennsylvania’s current situation, as well as background information on the novel ways that policy-makers and researchers measure political gerrymandering. Keeping the legal background and measurement procedures in context, there are also legislative reforms and commission procedures that states have taken in order to ameliorate the problems that arise from gerrymandering. A. Constitutionality & Legal Background The Pennsylvania State Constitution contains relevant clauses that must be applied to any redistricting plan. These are important
Maine and Vermont are the only two states to permit those sentenced of violations to vote without confinements (Bernd). There is a lot of debate on whether criminals should be able to vote or not. In truth, they should since the right to vote is a birth right for all citizens that are born in the United States, and voting is just an opinion. Although this right is taken for granted by many, and is worked out by far too few, these individuals should not be prohibited from voting since everybody can state their opinions. Felons have paid their debt to society and have received their punishments for whatever the cause was for them being thrown in jail.
This gives the candidates a way to contact with the people easily and win the election.Then there is Gerrymandering where they manipulate the borders of the states in such way that their part's candidate may win. A positive factor of gerrymandering is that it allows politicians, who could not otherwise get elected, to be elected and negative is that it allows politicians, who could not otherwise get elected, to be elected. In conclusion, the congress is very influential as they have created many different sections and processes in order to maintain checks and balances among themselves. There have been corruptions, inefficiencies and equal representation. There’s have been times when people were not happy with how long it has taken to pass a law since the process it self is a very long process.
Although Americans have the freedom to vote, there are still rules and regulations set forth to make the process a more smooth flowing affair. From filling out the application to meeting the qualifications, one American can find their voice as the determining factor for a sheriff, mayor or even president. There are many need to know facts about voting, one of the biggest most controversial topics pertaining to voting is the presentation of a photo I.D. With some states standing for
It allows for political stability, a smaller pool of candidates for public office, a simplified version of political information, and the representation of multiple political ideals (“9 Advantages and Disadvantages”). However, the two-party system’s disadvantages outweigh these positives. At the state and local level, the two-party system has a negative effect on the government and voters, it ignores options outside of the main two parties, and is perpetuated by many