UC Berkeley News: Skewed District Lines—Not Vote Margins—Gave Republican State Legislators The Unchecked Majorities

Berkeley CA

11 January, 2022

7:23 PM

Description

Press release from UC Berkeley News: January 5, 2022 BERKELEY: A new analysis of 2020 election results shows that district lines dramatically inflated the Republican majorities that passed some of the most controversial voter-access restrictions and redistricting maps in 2021. If seats were allocated proportionally to actual votes, Republicans in the Georgia senate, Florida senate, and North Carolina house would hold one- or zero-seat majorities, rather than the 8- to 18-seat advantages they currently enjoy. The research brief, published by the Othering and Belonging Institute (OBI) at University of California, Berkeley, brings to light how disproportional representation in state legislatures underlies some of the most pressing threats to democracy today. In swing states where Republican majorities are passing new voting restrictions and manipulating political boundaries in their favor, their unfettered legislative control is itself the result of prior electoral structures that advantage the GOP at the expense of the equality of votes and voters. This press release was produced by UC Berkeley News. The views expressed here are the author's own.