Representing People <i>and</i> Places: Castaway Voters and the Racial Disparity in Redistricting

Niven, David; Solimine, Michael E.

doi:10.1089/elj.2021.0032

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Although a key feature of modern discrimination is its veneer of gentility, we know from private documents that were never intended for public consumption that the drawing of district lines can be a product of pure venality. In Ohio, a consultant drawing district lines after the 2010 Census referred to African‐American neighborhoods in Columbus as “dogmeat” as he attempted to divide them from majority‐white areas (Niven and Solimine 2022). Legislators in several southern states, meanwhile, used racial epithets as shorthand when referring to majority‐African‐American districts (Combs 2016).…”

Section: Structural Racial Disparities and Redistrictingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The boundaries of confusion: Gerrymandering and racial disparities in state House and congressional district line congruity

Niven

Combs

Norwood

et al. 2022

Social Science Quarterly

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives: We introduce a new, stable, and reliable measure of gerrymandering based on the number of unnecessary overlapping state House districts within U.S. House districts. We then test for the presence of racial disparities by considering the relative number of unnecessary overlapping districts in majority-white and majority-minority areas. Methods: We utilize a data set encompassing maps in place in the 2012-2022 period from all 35 states with at least four congressional districts. Collectively this includes 386 U.S. House districts and more than 3600 state House districts. Results: We find widespread unnecessary district overlaps. In 34 of the 35 states examined, congressional districts overlap with more state House districts than is mathematically required. Moreover, unnecessary district overlaps are not imposed uniformly. Regression results suggest that districts with the largest white population experience roughly half the unnecessary overlaps imposed on districts with the smallest white population. Conclusion:We argue the implications of this racial disparity are significant given that previous research finds that confusing district boundaries have a deleterious effect on the basic pillars of representation. This effort represents a new and straightforward gerrymandering metric with implications for the study of representation and the pursuit of fair districts in the courts.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

show abstract

Section: Structural Racial Disparities and Redistrictingmentioning

confidence: 99%