To the editor:
States continue to use gerrymandering as a tool to draw the lines for mapping a state’s voting districts. The lines are drawn in a way to benefit the current majority in power and to enable them to remain in power.
A past election in North Carolina reported the vote totals as 50 percent Republican and 50 percent Democrat. You would expect each party to have close to equal representation in the chamber. But this voting process ended up with 10 Republicans and three Democrats. This result shows the controlling power of gerrymandering.
Several states have challenged this gerrymandering process in the courts. In most all cases the state’s courts have ruled that gerrymandering is not constitutionally fair voting process. It does not give all voters an equal chance to be represented.
The gerrymandering issue was appealed to the Supreme Court. The makeup of the court is five conservative and four liberal judges. The Supreme Court ruled, by a 5-to-4 decision, that gerrymandering is not proper, but it is a political decision for states to resolve. It is not a constitutional issue. Thus, states are allowed to use gerrymandering in their state’s voting.
This decision seems questionable and it overturns all the decisions made by the judges in several states. At the Supreme Court level you would think that politics would not be a factor in this decision. But we are an extremely divided nation.
Larry W. Shade, Columbus
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