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In August of 2011, the GOP controlled Wisconsin State Legislature secretly redrew the electoral map. Governor Scott Walker “quietly” signed off on the new map on the same day several state senators were up for recall. The Wisconsin Democratic Party, along with an immigrant rights organization, filed a lawsuit – but only two of the new gerrymandered districts were ordered redrawn. As a result, Republicans captured almost two-thirds of the state assembly seats – despite the fact that Democrats actually won a majority of the votes.
According to the complaint, this “partisan gerrymandering” violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, it “treats voters unequally, diluting their voting power based on their political belief.” At the same time, they are being denied equal protection under the law while their right of association and free speech have been severely compromised.
originally posted by: EternalSolace
a reply to: AlaskanDad
I'm still kind of curious when people will realize that the two political parties aren't really two seperate parties.
Illusion of choice is all it is.
originally posted by: ketsuko
If you can't win, get a recall, and if you still can't win, sue.
Governor Scott Walker “quietly” signed off on the new map on the same day several state senators were up for recall.
originally posted by: AlaskanDad
Once again we see party politics stepping on the rights of the voters, putting the party first is destroying our nation.
“Based on initial analysis, Rock County (which at the time relied exclusively on GIS shape files of the district and ward maps from WISE-LR) reported identifying approximately 200 addresses that were placed in the wrong municipality based on the TIGER 2010 data.
Rock County provided a specific example of some corrections to municipal boundaries that directly conflict with census blocks and the specific statutory language of Acts 43 and 44, affecting State Assembly, State Senate, and Congressional districts.
In this case, the municipal boundary between the Town of Harmony and the City of Janesville was approximately 0.1 mile off (528 feet) in the census data. This caused census blocks containing 9 houses that are in the City of Janesville to be incorrectly placed in the Town of Harmony. In addition, the same error caused census blocks containing one house or farm in the Town of Harmony to be incorrectly placed in the City of Janesville. Obviously, this situation also creates the likelihood of a shift in the population for the City of Janesville and Town of Harmony under Acts 43 and 44, which specifically attributed certain census blocks to incorrect municipalities. Please see the attached map for a visual representation of the discrepancy.
This situation is repeated in many other counties, if not all counties. In fact, the LTSB conducted a limited analysis of 19 counties comparing the circumference of municipal boundaries from the WISE- LR maps to the circumference of municipal boundaries in county shape file maps as they relate to legislative and congressional districts and concluded that 4,204 voters were affected by incorrect municipal boundaries, 1,071 of which likely change Assembly districts and 66 of which likely change Congressional districts.”
In essence, the supporting LTSB County Shape File provided to the Devil’s Advocates, identifies potential incorrectly districted persons (of which 66 are active registered voters) due to LTSB having improper maps with respect to only Municipal Lines (the LTSB did not report on other problems with natural features, ward lines, lower level district lines), which would have significantly altered the variances between the Congressional districts and “probably would have caused the Federal Courts to require the Wisconsin redistricting maps to be redone,” according to legal experts who provided background for this story.
originally posted by: Kali74
a reply to: ketsuko
Yeah let's pretend that his recall campaign wasn't all kinds of shady too.
originally posted by: Kali74
a reply to: intrepid
Walker's had several legal issues for quite some time, if this were isolated I might agree but it's not.