Sam Wang Quotes
Gerrymandering is not hard. The core technique is to jam voters likely to favor your opponents into a few throwaway districts where the other side will win lopsided victories, a strategy known as “packing.” Arrange other boundaries to win close victories, “cracking” opposition groups into many districts.
See {632785} for the results of Gerrymandering in the 2012 election.
Sam Wang, Neuroscientist & Mathematical Expert in Gerrymandering, “The Great Gerrymander of 2012”, New York Times, February 2, 2013
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This was the result of Gerrymandering over the last decade where the Republicans outmaneuvered the Democrats in enough states so that they could control the House even of the Democrats had a large majority of the votes for congress members. See {632784} for an explanation of Gerrymandering technique.
The Democrats had Gerrymandered Illinois very much the way the Republicans did it in Texas in 2000, thus enabling Stephen A Douglas to defeat Abraham Lincoln for Illinois Senator. However, when Lincoln realizing that he, a relative minor political figure, had come so close despite the gerrymandering, he was emboldened to run for the Presidency.
The irony of this quotation is that most people think that if there is any area of politics that should be nonpartisan or bipartisan, it is governing the voting and election process of our democracy. Yet, many who actually do the redistricting, are extremely partisan in the process.
This quotation is facinating because this type of Gerrymandering is exactly what the American Republican Party has tried and often accomlished in the United States in the late 20th and early 21st century
The Inspector General of the Justice Department and a Congressional committee found his actions illegal. Schlozman, a Republican Assistant Attorney General, had violated the Civil Service Reform Act by hiring attorneys on the basis of their political affiliation and later made false statements in his sworn testimony to Congress about his hiring decisions. He wanted people who he could count on to follow his lead and not prevent Southern States from changing their election laws and thus be able to discriminate against Blacks in voting, as was required by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This quotation is often cited by Civil Service supporters to show what can happen when a political appointee can fire government employees and replace them with people who will agree with him on matters of political ideology.
Most Americans are unaware that Congress has the power to redraw State Congressional District lines.
The legislators control redistricting and with the aid of modern computers, choose the demographics of the voters that they want in their districts even if they have to distort and Gerrymander the election district.
Samuel "Sam" Sheng-Hung Wang (born 1967) is an Taiwanese-American professor, neuroscientist, psephologist and author. He is known as the co-author of the books Welcome to Your Brain and Welcome to Your Child's Brain, as well as for the Princeton Election Consortium psephology website. Wang also gives talks about child brain development, autism, politics, and gerrymandering on television and radio, to academic audiences, and for the general public.
