I have the definition from my text book
but i still dont understand...
2006-10-12 10:00:20 · 12 answers · asked by duelo_05 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Other - Politics & Government
Definition:
try to get extra votes unfairly: to manipulate an electoral area, usually by altering its boundaries, in order to gain an unfair political advantage in an election
Basically it's a saying that a politician would cheat somehow to get votes by trying to get their district redistricted for more votes for example
2006-10-12 10:05:01 · answer #1 · answered by T.i.f.f.a.n.y 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Assume you have 4 districts and there is an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. A Republican in charge of redistricting will draw the districts (in the shape of a salamander if need be) to give the Republicans control in as many districts as possible by concentrating the Democrats into one district. Governor Gerry of Massachusetts was the 1st person to do this.
Example: 6 Rs and 6 Ds but the Rs control 3 out of the 4 seats instead of 2 out of the 4 seats.
1) RRD
2) RRD
3) RRD
4) DDD
2006-10-12 17:06:14 · answer #2 · answered by Brand X 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well the definition must be unclear in your book. It has to do with the way congressional districts are drawn out. When they are manipulated to favor one party over another, often they make very odd shapes, and they are called "gerrymanders."
[From Eldridge Gerry. He drew a congressional district and someone said it looked like a salamander. Someone else said, "No it's a GERRYMANDER."}
Love Jack
2006-10-12 17:06:00 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
It isn't so much to "pen up" certain groups, but to dilute them so that they will not have a majority. In the original use, it linked rural populations to urban ones, so that the rual votes would be a minority comparted to the urban one in every district, and thereby would not get representation.
This happened in Chelmsford, Massachusetts very recently. Chelmsford has an unusually large republican base for a Massachusetts town, so the town is split into three pieces, each piece joined in a voting district with strong democratic neighboring towns, so that the republicans won't have a majority in any district, and therefore not have a seat in the state legislature.
In order to accomplish this, you have to be able to control how voting districts are drawn. Who does that? The currently seated elected officials, of course.
2006-10-12 17:12:48 · answer #4 · answered by Jeffrey L 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a cool term - the original guy who did it was gerry someone, and what he did was carve up a political district into odd shapes like the shape of a salamander. The point was to control the votes by penning up certain groups of people in one voting precinct, and certain others in another in such a way as to make some groups have much less influence than if a more normal design were used to decide how to divide up the area into voting precincts.
2006-10-12 17:03:05 · answer #5 · answered by All hat 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It is very simple. Politicians change the boundaries of their voting districts so that they can control and influence the outcome of elections. The Dems want their districts to include as many low income, minority, University, and labor union people as possible because they are automatic Democrat votes. The Republicans want their district lines to include business owners, workers, middle class, and upper income people.
The net effect is that borders are shaped like a blob of crap once they get shaped to produce a certain result. If I were king, that practice would be illegal. Some of those districts are nuts when you look a how crooked and irregular they are.
2006-10-12 17:05:50 · answer #6 · answered by united9198 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
when you design congressional districts in a state in such a way that the party who gets 40% of the votes gets 60% of the seats and vice versa
in 1998 republican candidates for the house of congress from Texas got 58% of the votes yet democrats got more house seats from Texas
democrats gerrymandered Texas, TomdeLay undid it
2006-10-12 17:04:44 · answer #7 · answered by marceldev29 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
This verb form coined after "Elbridge Gerry" an American politician (17Jul1744-23Nov1814). Primarily, it consisted in manipulating the boundaries of a constituency (redistricting) for unfair electoral advantage.
2006-10-12 17:11:22 · answer #8 · answered by openpsychy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The drawing of electoral disrict lines to the advantage of a party or group.
2006-10-12 17:03:39 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is the arranging of congressional districs for the purpose of determining a partisian outcome.
2006-10-12 17:07:21 · answer #10 · answered by lundstroms2004 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋