Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Something New

Thanks to NPR, I learned a new word today... I'd heard it before, but didn't know what it meant. My word of the day is "Jerrymandering" (no, I haven't looked up the spelling), and it's another term for "redistricting". Apparently some politician named Jerry decided to redistrict so that he (or his party?) would do better in the election, and the convoluted boundaries resembled a salamander to one news reporter. This news reporter coined the term Jerrymandering, by combining Jerry and salamander.

Electoral districts change occasionally in Canada, but only rarely. I think really the only time they change is to adjust for changing population. Now, occasionally this is done in such a way to screw a candidate (such as in the last election), but, I believe, that mostly it isn't. From the sounds of the NPR broadcast, politicians in the US frequently screw with the boundaries so as to get the results they want. Bizarre. I don't know why I'm surprised, given how back-stabbing US politicians tend to be. (At least, that's how they appear from their smear-campaign commercials.)

NPR was on this topic because Arnold wants to mess with how districts are set... likely so he can get more moderates in, to push forward his agenda. At least, this was the opinion of the interviewee.

3 comments:

KelliAmanda said...

I think it's gerrymandering with a "G," and there's a pretty good example of something that's been called gerrymandering right here in NC - take a look at the district of Rep. Mel Watt.

noricum said...

Hmmm... that does look rather suspicious!

noricum said...

Here's a link describing how it's done in Canada:
http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/electoral/boundaries/readjustment-canada.htmlM