President Trump is Out of Step with Supermajority of Americans on Partisan Gerrymandering

Date
Issues
Redistricting

Yesterday, President Trump urged Pennsylvania Republicans to stand by their original extreme partisan gerrymandered map, which were struck down by their State Supreme Court, after the court said it clearly and plainly violated the state’s constitution.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) released the following statement:

“Fighting partisan gerrymandering is not simply about outcomes in a single election. It is about finding a long-term fix that will ultimately benefit all voters, regardless of political affiliation. Gerrymandering is practiced by both parties. Democrats in states like Maryland and Illinois have carved up maps for their benefit with as much zeal as Republicans in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Our system would be better off if the U.S. Supreme Court creates ground rules that safeguard all Americans’ fundamental right to vote and have it count.”

According to the website Planscore, a tool developed by political science and election law experts to score district plans, the Pennsylvania U.S. House plan released yesterday has relatively low partisan asymmetry, is more compact and is more competitive than both the plans that were used in the last three elections and the one vetoed by Governor Tom Wolf last week.

In the first-ever bipartisan survey on partisan gerrymandering and the Supreme Court, an overwhelming majority (71 to 15 percent) of Americans want the Supreme Court to place limits on lawmakers’ ability to manipulate voting maps. This includes 80 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of Independents and 65 percent of Republicans.    

The poll also shows that:

  • By a margin of 62 to 10 percent, voters are less likely to support a candidate who supports partisan gerrymandering.
  • ​By a margin of 73 to 14 percent, voters support removing partisan bias from redistricting, even if it means their preferred political party will win fewer seats.