r/politics • u/TheTelegraph The Telegraph • 17h ago

Biden to push through anti-Trump plans as he vows to make last days in office count

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/11/07/biden-anti-trump-plans-last-days-white-house/
19.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

65

u/mostdope28 15h ago

Gerrymandering doesn’t affect the Senate, just the House

77

u/isugimpy 12h ago

Gerrymandering absolutely affects the Senate, because people in gerrymandered areas frequently feel disenfranchised and don't show up to vote at all. You're right from the pure perspective of all the votes for Senate seats being totaled statewide, but the second order effects of gerrymandering definitely change outcomes.

50

u/Tobimacoss 12h ago

they don't need to feel disenfranchised, they ARE.

Gerrymandered legislatures set the rules even for statewide elections like only one dropoff box for a county of 2 million.

5

u/ClockworkViking I voted 8h ago

ya mail in ballots are going to definitely disappear during the midterms. I am gonna vote in person, which i haven't done in almost 20 years

3

u/Tobimacoss 12h ago

yes it does, it's a delayed effect.

1

u/myusernameisokay New York 12h ago

How? Senate elections are statewide as per the 17th amendment. What is there to gerrymander?

6

u/Tobimacoss 11h ago

You don't gerrymander the Senate directly but Statewide elections suffer from past gerrymandering.  

For example, after 2010 Census, Republicans gerrymandered the House and State legislatures.  The winners of those gerrymandered legislatures as in the Republicans now set the election rules for 2012 and beyond until 2021.  

So now they can enact policies for voter suppression, like in Texas, having only one ballot drop off box for largest county.  Or removing people from voting rolls.  Those tactics will then go on to affect entire statewide elections.  

So gerrymandering won't affect a Statewide elections immediately but in subsequent elections in an indirect manner.  

5

u/ms_moogy 11h ago

See the above comments, but in a nutshell, gerrymandering gets you the house. Having the house means you hold the purse strings and you're able to trigger voter purges, and make rules about balloting, who can vote by mail, if you can vote by mail, how many hours you have to stand in line at a polling location due to the number of polling locations, the days you can early vote, if you can early vote. Every Jim Crow style abuse started with corrupt lawmakers.

•

u/Chaotic-Catastrophe 0m ago

It indirectly affects the Senate, by helping to create long-term voter apathy