This is why politicians — primarily, at the moment, GOP ones — like gerrymandering. Also an example of why some conservatives want to get rid of the 17th Amendment and move US Senate elections back to the (gerrymandered) state legislatures.
Jones won 49% of the state-wide vote; Moore won 48%. But as Leonardo Carella notes:
If yesterday’s Alabama Senate race had been a House election, the Republicans, who got fewer votes, would have won 6 out of 7 seats, and the Democrats, who won the vote statewide, only 1 out of 7. That’s how gerrymandered Alabama is.
And that’s why gerrymandering is wrong. I wonder if SCOTUS will do anything about it in the upcoming case they are reviewing?
Leonardo Carella on Twitter
“If yesterday’s Alabama Senate race had been a House election, the Republicans, who got *fewer* votes, would have won 6 out of 7 seats, and the Democrats, who *won* the vote statewide, only 1 out of 7. That’s how gerrymandered Alabama is.”
I'd like to see how the Australian Electoral Commission would draw boundaries in Alabama. Unfortunately, they don't do hypotheticals of that kind. However, I suspect that an independent public authority would produce very different outcomes from a legislature.
I have no doubt. It was extremely interesting when California went to a third party commission for drawing districts. There's a handful of other states doing that or considering doing it, and it needs to spread.
Gerrymandering is like porn. It's impossible to define, but everyone knows it when they see it.
+Cindy Brown Unfortunately, getting state legislatures to give up that power (esp. when the party in charge is using that power to stay in charge) is a non-trivial problem.
I was shocked it happened in California under a republican governor. It's one thing that Schwarzenegger did that I respect him for.