Redistricting: Legal or Illegal? - Essay Sample

Introduction

Redistricting is a congressional act that was passed in the year 1967, and it was geared towards drawing of the electoral district boundaries within the United States soil. However, redistricting tends to be legal or illegal in some situations; for instance, members of the congress, municipal offices, and other state legislators are being elected by voters who are grouped in districts. Moreover, the populations tend to change since some of the regions receive residents while others lose them. Also, areas can change demographically, and the United States recommends the redrawing of the district boundaries after every ten years so that there is uniformity in terms of population number being represented by the elected representative (The Big Buy-Rise And Fall Of Tom Delay). This paper will evaluate the situation in which redistricting is viewed as legal and, in some circumstances, leads to top violation of the Voting Rights Act.

Redistricting

The redistricting affects the political power by determining which party manages the state and congress and local governments in the United States. For instance, in the United States, the redistricting has some positive impacts on what decisions or matters doe the legislature decides to handle or tackle and which subjects to ignore. Also, to some extent, redistricting is legal since it has some impacts on the global diversity of the communities of the United States when they are equally presented in the legislative bodies; for instance, redistricting makes sure that ethnicities of color have equal rights of electing the political candidates ("Redistricting In Texas - Ballotpedia"). The latter will present their worldview and be able to defend their concerns. Most of the states make sure that they include the community interest when drawing the district lines, which is an excellent start because the boundaries will have to include people who share some common cultural, geographic, racial, and social concerns.

Through redistricting, most of the minority groups are more likely to have their interest represented in the legislative interest, which can lead to their benefit from the usual representation in the government. The redistricting is legal since it is much deeper than the democrat or republic political parties; for instance, a district that consists of farmers will always elect representatives who will address the issues referring to aspirations, priorities, and histories ("Redistricting In Texas - Ballotpedia"). The redistricting procedure is legal since it is open and transparent by allowing the communities to ask and seek clarification about some issues and be able to give input about the concerns.

Gerrymandering

However, gerrymandering is the act of violating the voting rights act, and this can be seen in many situations where one party decides to manipulate the district lines to protect their political power in a specific region. For instance, one of the political skills might choose to employ the unilateral ability to pass a map that locks in a disproportionate share of the legislative seat in a defined region such as in Texas. Through gerrymandering, the plans can be drawn in a specific way, which creates a disadvantage to some ethnic or racial minorities in the region (Eaton, 1193). Moreover, redistricting makes the district to be balanced so that there is an equal balance of population and representative. In contrast, gerrymandering comes in the process of distorting the representation, which makes some states have unequal distribution of resources and even weak growth if the economy in such regions.

Despite the fact of the Texas remapping controversy, the federal government should be involved in making sure that there is no political thicket whereby one part, is much involved in redistricting, which creates gerrymandering. Through partisan gerrymandering, one political party is much engaged in dispersing of the other party supporters in different districts, which have minorities of voters who, in turn, are unable to elect the representative of their choice (Lo, 78). The best-recommended option for the ending of Gerrymandering is to allow the federal government to act under the strict laws in redistricting to avoid having unbalanced votes from various ethnic groups. Since political gerrymandering is both the people and state problem, then the solution should always be done by the combination of the citizens and the state. The federal government should work closely with the public or rather the people of specific regions who will aid in redistricting so that there are few or no cases of gerrymandering, which in return affect the political stability of the area, which later affects the general politics of the country.

Conclusion

In conclusion, is that through the involvement of the federal government in some activities such as redistricting aids in making sure that the political culture of Texas is fair and that both the majority and minority groups are well presented at the regional and national situation. Also, the Texas legislative branch should incorporate another government branch when redistricting or campaigning to make sure that Texas has fair elections that are not biased or based on one ethnic group and that the voting rights act is not violated. Therefore the political system of Texas or any state should avoid some illegal practices such as stealing of the votes to be in power the way is demonstrated in the movie “The big buy” because they result in many negative consequences.

Works Cited

"Redistricting In Texas - Ballotpedia". Ballotpedia, 2020, https://ballotpedia.org/Redistricting_in_Texas.

Eaton, Whitney M. "Where Do We Draw the Line-Partisan Gerrymandering and the State of Texas." U. Rich. L. Rev. 40 (2005): 1193.

Lo, James. "Legislative responsiveness to gerrymandering: Evidence from the 2003 Texas redistricting." Quarterly Journal of Political Science 8.1 (2013): 75-92.

The Big Buy-Rise And Fall Of Tom Delay. 2020, https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6rzv. Accessed 10 June 2020.