Turning The Ballot Box Against Republicans

Which budget is this?

As Republicans Cover For Barr, Remember Team Trump Had 251 Contacts with Russians.

Federal judges toss out Ohio’s congressional map as illegal gerrymander
Updated 2:30 PM; Today 1:16 PM

A three-judge federal panel unanimously ruled Friday that Ohio’s gerrymandered congressional district map is unconstitutional, and ordered the creation of a new map in time for the 2020 election.

This is the latest in a series of decisions across the country striking down partisan maps, including in neighboring Michigan and Pennsylvania. Plus, Supreme Court rulings are pending for cases out of North Carolina and Maryland.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, on behalf of the League of Women voters and others, filed the suit a year ago in an attempt to move up the timetable for congressional redistricting reform in the state.

“This ruling is a victory for every Ohio voter, because a fair congressional map before 2020 means a stronger democracy for the Buckeye State," said Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio.

The court ordered the state to create a new map by June 14. But if the state fails to adopt a constitutional version of the map for Ohio’s 16 congressional districts, the court may then do so itself.

An appeal is possible directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We join the other federal courts that have held partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional and developed substantially similar standards for adjudicating such claims,” the ruling read in part.

“We are convinced by the evidence that this partisan gerrymander was intentional and effective and that no legitimate justification accounts for its extremity. ... the 2012 map dilutes the votes of Democratic voters by packing and cracking them into districts that are so skewed toward one party that the electoral outcome is predetermined. We conclude that the map unconstitutionally burdens associational rights by making it more difficult for voters and certain organizations to advance their aims, be they pro-Democratic or pro- democracy."

Two of the three judges were appointees of Democratic presidents - Timothy S. Black by Barack Obama and Karen Nelson Moore by Bill Clinton. The third judge on the panel, Michael H. Watson, was appointed by Republican George W. Bush. The case was heard in Cincinnati.

Cleveland.com has reached out to the governor and state attorney general for comment, and is awaiting response. In court filings leading up the the ruling, the state said it must have a map by September of this year, in order to prepare for the 2020 election.

The judges in their ruling laid out an aggressive timetable to create a new map, ordering the state to “enact a remedial plan consistent” with the court’s opinion by June 14. That plan and details of how the new map was determined must be submitted by June 21.

The advocates who brought the suit will then have a week to object to the new map.

Friday’s ruling said that if necessary, the court could create its own map with the help of a special master.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose did not directly address the ruling, but said a prepared statement: “Make no mistake, our office will work with county boards of elections to administer fair, accurate and secure elections in 2020, pending the conclusion of the judicial process.”

Ohio voters last year overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment to limit how much the majority party could control the process of drawing congressional lines, beginning in 2022 after results of the next census are available. The lawsuit attempts to force change beginning with the 2020 election.

The current Ohio congressional map, created under secrecy and full Republican control in 2011, has resulted in districts making little geographic sense, stretching more than 100 miles, and predictable results with 12 reliably Republican districts created by packing Democrats into four solidly blue districts.

The map had come under intense criticism from critics who claimed it created insurance against swings in voter sentiment - for both Republican and Democratic districts. The map, at least indirectly, led to statewide petitions for change.

In each of the four congressional elections with this map, Republicans have won the same 12 seats and Democrats the same four - just as designed. And the GOP has won those 75 percent of elections with just over 50 percent of the vote.

The ill effects of gerrymandering, and the need for change, was the focus of a months-long cleveland.com series - Out of Line: Impact 2017 and Beyond. Reform had support from both Republicans and Democrats.

Ohio followed a long list of states where the legality of the gerrymandering has been questioned.

Pennsylvania held elections last year with a new congressional map after the old map was tossed out by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

A federal judge panel in Michigan this spring ordered changes to congressional and Statehouse district maps there.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of June on pending gerrymandering cases out of Maryland and North Carolina, one brought Republicans and one brought by Democrats.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 ruled that partisan gerrymandering violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, but left ambiguous the standard by which courts might rule on such claims.

A clearer answer on the limits of partisan gerrymandering could come from the pending cases.

In Ohio, the congressional map violated the constitutional rights of Ohioans, the suit claimed, by:

"Entrenching partisan advantage against likely changes in voter preference."
Disfavoring "Democratic voters on the basis of their political affiliation."
Placing "plaintiffs and their political class into districts so as to dilute the power of their votes."

The state said in court filings that any new map needs to be in place by Sept. 20, 2019, so there is enough time to prepare for the 2020 election.

I was just coming here to post this Neptune. Great minds.


Court Strikes Down Ohio Congressional Map, Says It’s Gerrymandered To Benefit GOP
The court blocked the state from using its current map in any future elections. It gave lawmakers until June 14 to come up with a new one.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ohio-gerrymandering-court-ruling_n_5ccc7638e4b0e4d757322294

The senate is packed with republicans who don't currently have true justification to be in office.

The electorate does not want them there.

GOP redistricting edge moderated Democrats' 2018 gains, analysis finds

The AP's analysis indicates that Republicans won about 16 more U.S. House seats than would have been expected.
March 21, 2019, 12:02 PM EDT
By Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Democrats won more votes, regained control of the U.S. House and flipped hundreds of seats in state legislatures during the 2018 elections. It was, by most accounts, a good year for the party.

Yet it wasn't as bad as it could have been for Republicans.

That's because they may have benefited from a built-in advantage in some states, based on how political districts were drawn, that prevented deeper losses or helped them hold on to power, according to a mathematical analysis by The Associated Press.

The AP's analysis indicates that Republicans won about 16 more U.S. House seats than would have been expected based on their average share of the vote in congressional districts across the country. In state House elections, Republicans' structural advantage might have helped them hold on to as many as seven chambers that otherwise could have flipped to Democrats, according to the analysis.

The AP examined all U.S. House races and about 4,900 state House and Assembly seats up for election last year using a statistical method of calculating partisan advantage that is designed to flag cases of potential political gerrymandering. A similar analysis also showed a GOP advantage in the 2016 elections.

The AP used the so-called "efficiency gap" test in part because it was one of the analytical tools cited in a Wisconsin gerrymandering case that went before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2017 and is part of a North Carolina case scheduled to be argued on Tuesday before the court. In that case, justices will decide whether to uphold a lower court ruling that struck down North Carolina's congressional districts as an unconstitutional political gerrymander favoring Republicans.

The high court also is to hear arguments Tuesday on whether Democrats in Maryland unconstitutionally gerrymandered a congressional district in 2011 in order to defeat a long-time Republican incumbent.

The U.S. Supreme Court has never struck down districts because of excessive partisan manipulation, and the efficiency gap formula is no guarantee it will start. During arguments on the Wisconsin gerrymandering case, Chief Justice John Roberts called it "sociological gobbledygook."

Some Republicans also have criticized it, insisting they win simply because they run better candidates. The formula does not necessarily prove political shenanigans, because partisan advantages also can arise naturally based on where Democratic and Republican voters choose to live.

Many political and redistricting experts say the formula provides a neutral way to determine the effects of gerrymandering and how one party can maintain power for a decade or beyond. Plaintiffs in the North Carolina case say now is the time for the court to end highly partisan gerrymandering, with the next round of redistricting set to follow the 2020 Census.

"Gerrymandering as a whole cheats voters out of our representation," said Love Caesar, a student at North Carolina A&T State University who works with Common Cause, an advocacy group that is a lead plaintiff in the case.

The AP's analysis found North Carolina Republicans won two or three more congressional seats than would have been expected based on their share of the vote. Republican candidates received 51 percent of the two-party vote compared to Democrats' 49 percent. Yet Republicans won a 9-3 seat advantage over Democrats, with one seat still undecided because of allegations of vote fraud.

Democrats say that illustrates the effect of Republican gerrymandering and point to Caesar's university, a historically black college in Greensboro, as an example. Republicans in the General Assembly divided the school when they drew the congressional map, dispersing a Democratic-leaning voting bloc among two Republican-leaning districts that extend from Greensboro into more rural areas.

The congressional districts that split the campus are both represented by Republicans.

"It's hard to explain to students who are already skeptical about the voting process ... that the state intentionally diluted their power in voting by putting this line back here in between our campus," said North Carolina A&T student Kylah Guion, who also works with Common Cause.

Republican lawmakers concentrated Democrats in other congressional districts. In the only three districts Democrats won last November, they carried at least 70 percent of the two-party vote.

The efficiency gap test offers a way to assess the effects of redistricting strategies — packing voters of one party into some districts, or spreading them out among others to make it easier for the other party to win seats. It compares a party's average district vote share to the share of seats it wins.

For the 2016 and 2018 elections, North Carolina had the highest pro-Republican tilt among the roughly two dozen largest states that determine the bulk of the seats in the U.S. House, according to the AP's analysis.

Other states that had consistently sizable Republican advantages in both congressional elections included Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Alabama and Texas — all places where Republicans were in charge of redistricting after the 2010 Census. Although Democratic victories mounted nationally in 2018, the AP's analysis showed that the Republicans' efficiency gap advantage became more pronounced in those states.

Massachusetts showed a consistent Democratic tilt in its congressional districts, though not at the same magnitude as the most pro-Republican states.

In Pennsylvania, the Democratic-majority state Supreme Court redrew the congressional map for the 2018 elections after striking down the previous Republican-drawn version as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The AP's analysis found the Republican tilt was cut by more than half from the 2016 to 2018 elections as the state's congressional delegation went from a 13-5 GOP majority to an even split of nine seats each for Republicans and Democrats.

The analysis shows Pennsylvania Democrats could have expected to win a 10-8 congressional majority based on getting about 55 percent of the total two-party vote. The fact they didn't might be explained by the high concentration of Democrats in urban areas, which diminishes their votes elsewhere.

The AP's analysis also found a persistent Republican advantage in state House or Assembly districts in Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin and South Dakota and a consistent Democratic edge in Nevada.

There were five state legislative chambers where Republicans retained the majority in 2018 even though Democratic candidates won more votes overall — Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The efficiency gap analysis showed more states with a Republican edge than a Democratic one in their U.S. and state House districts.

Yet "when you look at the nation as a whole, it's not just a radically tilted map," said Eric McGhee, a researcher at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California who developed the efficiency gap model. "It's more that in these certain key states, they're paving the way for things to be much worse in the future" through gerrymandering.

The Republican State Leadership Committee, which has mounted an aggressive campaign to elect Republican-led legislatures ahead of redistricting, dismisses the efficiency gap analysis as "a political and intellectual sham" used to try to advance the fortunes of Democrats. The formula assumes a party has a right to win seats based on its statewide vote even if its candidates in particular districts aren't that good, said the group's president, Matt Walter.

"This is not a real formula. This is not a real theory," he said. "This is ivory-tower nonsense."

Republicans' success during the last round of redistricting led top Democrats such as former Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder to launch a counteroffensive leading up to the 2020 Census. Part of the Democrats' strategy has been to challenge Republican-drawn maps in court and support voter initiatives that shift redistricting duties away from state lawmakers.

Democrats contend their candidates are good but face long odds in districts where the boundaries have been manipulated.

"The value of the efficiency gap is it puts some data behind what we see is evident from election results," said Patrick Rodenbush, communications director for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. "It's clear that Republicans have an unfair advantaged based fully on gerrymandering."

DC and VA bar could disbar Barr for lying to Congress when they investigate. Hope soon.

Hillary Clinton mocks president: ‘China, if you’re listening, why don’t you get Trump’s tax returns?’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clinton-china-if-youre-listening-why-dont-you-get-trumps-tax-returns/2019/05/02/6d2310f6-6cca-11e9-8f44-e8d8bb1df986_story.html

Tennesse Governor Bill Lee threatens voter registration groups with criminal charges after 36,000 black people registered to vote

Gov. Bill Lee signs new Tennessee law that punishes voter signup missteps; lawsuit filed
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/03/tennessee-voter-registration-new-law-punishes-voter-signup-missteps-suit-filed/3658674002/

This man has no room to talk when he lied during Candence Ownes testimony and called her a white nationalist who was defending Hitler, he has no honor, but that is typical of this leftists groups of "politicians".

That would require Chine to hack Govt servers, of which is illegal. She should be arrested for encouraging a foreign power to hack govt servers, talk about a traitor.

Just curious. Since Trump's first claim to fame is his genius success as a businessman and financial mogul, do you ever wonder why he's so deathly set on the public never seeing his taxes or business transactions with Deutche Bank? Or does it not matter to you that he's a fraud, because tax cuts, justices and regulation rollbacks?

Bingo

They might take it as disingenuous or snarky, but it’s an honest question. I really do wonder how it is that people who consider themselves to be decent and reasonable can support this piece of crap.

I think they are so focused on installing 'right' thinking judges on the federal courts they are willing to overlook all of his amoral behavior as if he were a king. I also think they believe they can control him after they get everything they think they want. Sadly, our foreign relationships will be in shambles, our financial footing will be decimated ...... infrastructure will be crumbling and Trump and others like him will resist giving up power then will be organizing everything we are allowed to do. Pure authoritarianism.

It's probably the RUSSIANS who are doing this, amirite?

Even if every major intelligence authority in the country said that Russia had sweeping and systematic influence on the election and that Putin wanted Trump to win(they have, by the way), you would not believe it. So your words and opinions on the matter are based on ****, and don’t matter.