Party Politics in the American System

[Pietro_Mercurios]

Article over on the Alternet.Org site. So apparently, new State legislation means that the next time the Republicans don't like the result in Georgia, they can just overturn it.

This election expert pinpoints 'the most sinister' part of Georgia's voting law that's flying under the radar

[Heresiologist]

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In non presidential elections, especially for Congressional representatives, gerrymandering has destroyed the value of most primaries, just allowing extremism to flourish. This is where I think ranked choice open primaries might actually save the rest of the nation from the ideological idiocracy and posing passing as governing in the House.

Of course, the biggest change needed in primaries is making voting easier, not harder. Restrictions are anti-democratic (lower case d intended).

Back in 1952, the "vested interests" (basically liberal and conservative party movers and shakers) in my province used a form of ranked choice voting to prevent the more popular social democratic leftist party from winning. It sort of backfired though because a further right, more fringe, right wing party squeaked out a very narrow victory over "the socialists" (who actually won the majority of votes).

So... yeah... I suspect the "gerrymanderers" would find a way to "gerrymander" ranked choice.

Anyway, what really stands out to me is the way your electoral districts get drawn. Are there no states that have independent commissions set up for this purpose?

[EverKing]

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Anyway, what really stands out to me is the way your electoral districts get drawn. Are there no states that have independent commissions set up for this purpose?

Not that I am aware of. Frankly, it is unsurprising when you think of the humanity behind it all. If the Legislature gets to define the districts and Party A and/or Party B are the sole representatives in the Legislature why would they pass a law removing this authority from themselves and thereby risking their power?

There has been talk around the country of creating such commissions and a few states (mine included) have set up supposed "independent" review boards but I don't think any move to have redistricting authority completely removed from partisan bodies has been successful.

[Heresiologist]

I suppose the "independent" part of independent commission carries a lot of weight and therefore represents a point of leverage for those who want to twist the system. Still, it's not like no other country in the world hasn't managed to mostly overcome the gerrymandering hurdle.

Maybe the NED should set up an expeditionary force of Mounties: https://www.vox.com/2014/4/15/560428...ow-to-fix-them

Then again, the leverage point is those three fellows on the first commission. So, maybe we just got lucky.