[EL] Milhiser article on partisan gerrymandering

[Douglas Johnson]

Such studies have been done for decades. In fact the difference between the
party getting more votes and the party getting more seats was fairly central
to many of the arguments (though not to the ruling) in the Tom Delay Texas
re-redistricting case. There is no "genius" to such analysis, despite
Millhiser's use of that term. 

 

The more simplistic versions of such studies (including this Mattingly and
Vaughn study) completely ignore the requirements of the Voting Rights Act.
In fact, the phrase "voting rights act" never even appears in the Mattingly
and Vaughn paper. The only remote reference to it is "The two districts with
largest African American representation had on average around 36% and 32%
African American population, which compares favorably to the state wide
percentage of 22%, but not to the current districts." That sounds to me
either like a total failure to understand the VRA, or a knowing attempt to
distract reporters from recognizing that they're deliberately ignoring the
VRA despite the VRA's significant impact on the redistricting plan in
question.

 

Millhiser specifically condemns redistricting plans that "are almost
certainly the product of a legislature that carefully designed the maps to
produce a desired result." But that is exactly what the VRA requires - on a
racial/ethnic and language front. The difficulty is not in proving that
redistricting plans are not random (or at least that they're not the
most-compact plan possible). The difficulty is in proving the plans are
drawn for partisan purpose, as opposed to drawn ensure compliance with the
VRA or to follow city, county, or other community of interest boundaries.
The filings in Vieth  provide a look at a variety of potential tools for
such analysis. Millhiser and Vaughn do not. 

 

This is a topic in desperate need of good solid analysis and study. I often
describe Vieth as the Supreme Court's version of a "Call for Papers."
Unfortunately neither the article nor the study qualify as such.

 

-          Doug

 

Douglas Johnson, Fellow

Rose Institute of State and Local Government

at Claremont McKenna College 

douglas.johnson at cmc.edu

310-200-2058 

 

 

 

 


 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=68747> "If The Supreme Court Reads This
Study, It Could End Partisan Gerrymandering Forever"


Posted on  <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=68747> December 2, 2014 8:10 am by
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 
<http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/12/01/3597643/this-study-could-end-th
e-worst-kinds-of-gerrymandering-if-the-supreme-court-took-the-time-to-read-i
t/> Ian Millhiser writes.

I was surprised to see no mention of Voting Rights Act requirements in
drawing these districts. 

 
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