December 4, 2018

Chart of the Day: Wisconsin Gerrymandering Was Awesome

Check out the results of Wisconsin’s gorgeous, computer-generated Republican gerrymander:

Recall that the goal of a gerrymander is to stuff as many opposition votes as possible into the smallest number of districts. In this case, Republicans wanted to create as many districts as possible that were 100 percent Democratic, and boy howdy did they succeed. There are 30 (!) districts that are entirely Democratic compared to only eight that are entirely Republican.

What this means is that in 30 districts there are a ton of “wasted” Democratic votes. Every vote over 50 percent does nothing except give the Democrat in that district a bigger win. If the district lines were fairer, many thousands of those Democratic voters would instead be in competitive districts giving Republicans a run for their money.

The end result is that Republicans won 46 percent of the statewide vote but 64 percent of the seats in the state Assembly. Now that’s gerrymandering!

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