Gerrymandering, the oldest cheat in the book
November 19, 2018
By AIDEN PRICE
The Mirror reporter
Democracy, something that the US has been using since its beginning. It is showing that everyone votes and the one with the most votes wins… or at least that was the plan. With gerrymandering, this isn’t how it’s done politically.
Gerrymandering is where district voting lines are drawn to support one side better than the other. The original idea began a long time ago when people used this to make the upper-class votes count more than the ones from the lower class. Now both parties (Democrats and Republicans) use this to their advantage. Drawing the lines in places to benefit them.
This is a problem! Sometimes our vote doesn’t matter because one of the sides cheat their way to winning. If someone has the majority of votes then they should be the ones that win, but then the other wins due to gerrymandering.
There are many ways to fix this problem though. The easiest option is to just get rid of it entirely. Democracy is about voting fairly and letting the majority vote win, so we can get rid of gerrymandering (and the Electoral College) so it’s a fair vote.
The other good option for us is to use the ranking method where people would vote for their top three people. The person in last place is eliminated. Then everyone who chose that candidate as their first vote would use their second vote instead. This keeps going until one of the people we are voting for gets over 50% of the votes.
The other options are harder and could just make it worse, so the one that we should focus on is getting rid of it.
Is gerrymandering fully horrible? No, there are upsides to having it. Sometimes this can help in ties and also split places that are having a hard time having a choice. This is what was originally planned
No matter many times we try to make gerrymandering look good it is used to cheat the system and get one side to win. We should just use the popular vote and not gerrymandering.
Liam Glennon • Jan 22, 2019 at 2:46 PM
Actually, the U.S. is a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy. The only thing democratic about the United States of America is the election of representatives. But I do agree with you, gerrymandering is a practice that should be stopped.
Hlee • Nov 27, 2018 at 11:05 AM
When I first learn of gerrymandering in I think 8th grade, I’d wonder why we have something like that when what we wanted was a fair election. I’d felt that gerrymandering did nothing, but help the other party cheat a victory and I still do.
Willow • Nov 26, 2018 at 11:09 AM
I never really understood what gerrymandering was but this article helped me a lot in figuring it out.
Bryant VanRossem • Nov 26, 2018 at 10:45 AM
I have never heard of this but the first thing that came to mind was the Hunger Games districts. This is an interesting idea and this was a well-written article.
Lauren Huebner • Nov 26, 2018 at 7:57 AM
I too feel that we shouldn’t allow gerrymandering. I also agree that we should get rid of the Electoral College. If a candidate wins the popular vote, they should be the one put into office.
Soren Luther • Nov 25, 2018 at 8:52 PM
Good job on your article! I agree with you that voting should be a fair and safe way to express who you want to help the country. Gerrymandering can hurt this process in many ways and should be stopped. Keep up the good work!
Madison Rindahl • Nov 25, 2018 at 4:32 PM
Wow! I really liked this article. It gave great description and helped me understand what gerrymandering is all about. It was clear and down to the point.
Rachel Placeway • Nov 25, 2018 at 1:32 PM
I like the topic you decided to write about. Not a lot of people know about gerrymandering and it’s good to make people aware of it.
Maryann Silva • Nov 20, 2018 at 10:38 AM
Good job. I’ve never been a person who pays attention to politics, yet politics are very important. I’ve Never heard of gerrymandering. Very interesting.
Justice Chukwuemeka • Nov 19, 2018 at 10:34 PM
I also think we should use the popular vote too. All this gerrymandering and electoral college system are really confusing. Thanks for the article.