Eli5 gerrymandering and how it works so successfully?

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Eli5 gerrymandering and how it works so successfully?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Let’s say there’s a voting system where most voted party gets a set per district. Say, if A gets 40% but B gets 60%, B gets the seat regardless, A gets nothing.

Now, by knowning in finer grained detailed where in the district people voted which party, you can split or rearrange districts as such that A can get an advantage even though nothing in regards to voter distribution changes. Just as to which district the votes are counted for.

Simplest in this example would be just splitting he district such that all the A voters are in a new district, and all the B voters in another. Result is now two districts, but 100% for A in one and 100% for B in both. Both get a seat and A gained a seat from nothing.

Of course, in reality, it’s quite more complex. I recommend looking at Google Image results for »gerrymandering«. The pictures there give quite an intuitive understanding.

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