The Voting War In North Carolina | VICE on HBO

Summary

The video script delves into the contentious issue of gerrymandering in the United States, particularly focusing on Asheville, North Carolina. It illustrates how the city's liberal population was split between two conservative districts post-2011 redistricting, diminishing its political influence. The script explores the historical origins of gerrymandering, the strategic 'REDMAP' project by Republicans to gain control over state legislatures, and the use of modern tools like Mapp titude for redistricting. It also discusses the techniques of 'cracking' and 'packing' to manipulate voter influence and highlights the bipartisan support for ending gerrymandering, including the potential impact of the efficiency gap measure before the Supreme Court.

Takeaways

• 🗺️ Asheville, known for its liberal population, was split into two conservative districts following the 2011 redistricting, altering its political landscape.
• 🔄 The redistricting was part of a broader strategy called 'REDMAP' aimed at giving Republicans control over state legislatures to influence congressional redistricting.
• ⚖️ Gerrymandering, the practice of manipulating district maps for political advantage, has been used to ensure conservative majorities in North Carolina despite a balance of registered party voters.
• 📊 The efficiency gap, a statistical measure, was developed to quantify partisan advantage in redistricting, which could be used in Supreme Court cases to assess gerrymandering.
• 🏛️ The U.S. Supreme Court's decisions on gerrymandering cases could set precedents affecting the balance of power in Washington DC.
• 🤝 Bipartisan support is growing for ending gerrymandering due to its negative impact on representation and the performance of Congress.
• 📉 Gerrymandering has led to a decrease in competitive elections and increased political polarization, as seen in California before redistricting reform.
• 👥 Strategies like cracking and packing are used to manipulate voter influence by dispersing or concentrating voters to favor one party over another.
• 🏫 North Carolina A&T State University is an example of cracking, where the campus was split between two districts, diluting the impact of student votes.
• 🗳️ The redistricting process is legally necessary for equal population representation but has been exploited to extreme partisan ends without clear legal limits.

Q & A

What is the main issue discussed in the video script?

The main issue discussed in the video script is gerrymandering, which is the manipulation of district voting maps for the advantage of one political party, and its impact on the political landscape, particularly in Asheville, North Carolina.

How did the 2011 redrawing of congressional districts affect Asheville, North Carolina?

The 2011 redrawing divided Asheville's liberal-leaning population into two conservative districts, which altered the political landscape and made it difficult for Democrats to win in areas that were previously competitive.

What is the historical origin of the term 'gerrymandering'?

The term 'gerrymandering' dates back to 1812 when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry's Democratic-Republican Party manipulated district lines to gain an advantage in the state Senate. A cartoonist satirized one of the salamander-shaped voting districts, leading to the coining of the term 'gerrymander'.

What is the REDMAP project mentioned in the script?

REDMAP is a strategic plan by Republicans to concentrate resources on key state legislative races where there would be a redrawing of congressional lines based on census data. The goal was to gain control of the US House of Representatives by influencing redistricting.

What are the two main strategies used in partisan gerrymandering?

The two main strategies used in partisan gerrymandering are 'cracking' and 'packing'. Cracking disperses the other side's voters across multiple districts, while packing concentrates them in a few districts where their preferred candidates can win by large margins.

How does gerrymandering affect the influence of voters in Asheville?

Gerrymandering has led to Asheville's liberal population feeling that their voice has been eradicated, as their influence is diluted by being absorbed into more conservative districts, reducing their impact on elections.

What is the efficiency gap and how does it relate to gerrymandering?

The efficiency gap is a statistical measurement created by Nick Stephanopoulos to quantify the extent of partisan advantage in redistricting. It calculates the difference in 'wasted' votes between parties, which can indicate how heavily a district plan has been gerrymandered.

What is the role of the Supreme Court in addressing gerrymandering?

The Supreme Court is expected to provide guidance on the legal limits of partisan gerrymandering. In the script, it is mentioned that the Court will hear arguments for a case involving Wisconsin State Assembly districts, which could set a precedent for using the efficiency gap to measure gerrymandering.

What is the perspective of the architect of REDMAP on the practice of gerrymandering?

The architect of REDMAP, Chris Kowski, views gerrymandering as a strategic move to give Republicans an advantage in state governments. He does not express regret for the practice, believing it was a good thing for his party, despite acknowledging the polarization it can cause.

How has gerrymandering impacted the state of North Carolina's political representation?

Gerrymandering has resulted in Republicans occupying 64% of the state assembly seats in North Carolina, despite there being more registered Democrats than Republicans. This has led to a distortion of representation that does not reflect the state's population as a whole.

Outlines

00:00

🗺️ Asheville's Political Landscape Altered by Gerrymandering

The first paragraph introduces Asheville, a city with a liberal-leaning population that has been politically impacted by redistricting. It explains how Asheville was once part of a congressional district that balanced its liberal views with the conservative views of Western North Carolina, represented by moderate Democrat Heath Shuler. However, after the 2011 redistricting by the Republican state legislature, Asheville was split into two conservative districts, diminishing the city's political influence. Asheville's mayor, Esther Manheimer, discusses the dramatic change in representation and how the city's voice has been eradicated by gerrymandering. The paragraph also touches on the broader implications of gerrymandering, which is the manipulation of district voting maps for political advantage, and how it has led to the replacement of moderate politicians with more extreme ones.

05:02

🔍 The Impact of REDMAP and Redistricting Techniques

The second paragraph delves into the strategy behind REDMAP, a plan by Republicans to concentrate resources on state legislative races that would oversee the redrawing of congressional lines post-census. This strategy has resulted in Republicans gaining significant map-making power, leading to a loss of over 900 state legislature seats for Democrats. The paragraph discusses how redistricting is done using modern tools like Mapp titude, which allows for precise manipulation of district lines to influence election outcomes. It explains the techniques of 'cracking' and 'packing,' where voters are either dispersed across districts to dilute their influence or concentrated in a few districts to minimize their overall impact. The paragraph also provides examples of these techniques, including the splitting of a historically black university's campus and the manipulation of a State House district to pack minority voters, thereby affecting their influence in other races.

10:03

🌐 The Broader Reach and Future of Gerrymandering

The third paragraph explores the wider effects of gerrymandering across the United States, highlighting the GOP's increased control over state legislatures and the subsequent shift in political representation. It discusses the public's growing awareness and dissatisfaction with gerrymandering due to Congress's low approval ratings and the perceived lack of fairness in the electoral process. The paragraph includes perspectives from various stakeholders, including a former governor and a scholar who developed a statistical measurement called the efficiency gap to quantify partisan advantage in redistricting. The potential for the Supreme Court to establish new standards for gerrymandering is also mentioned, as well as the views of a Republican strategist who does not regret his role in advancing his party's interests through redistricting. The paragraph concludes with a discussion on the need for redistricting reform and the possibility of taking the process out of the hands of politicians to ensure fairness and representation.

Keywords

💡Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering refers to the manipulation of electoral district boundaries to favor one political party. In the video, Asheville's liberal population was split between two conservative districts after the 2011 redrawing, which is a clear example of gerrymandering. This practice is shown to undermine the political influence of certain communities by dispersing or concentrating their votes in a way that diminishes their electoral power.

💡Redistricting

Redistricting is the process of redrawing the boundaries of electoral districts, typically following a census. The video explains that after the 2011 redistricting in North Carolina, Asheville's political landscape was dramatically altered, with the city being split into two conservative districts, which changed the political representation of the city and its influence.

💡Packing and Cracking

Packing and cracking are two strategies used in gerrymandering. Packing involves concentrating a large number of voters from one party into a single district to minimize their influence in other districts, while cracking disperses these voters across multiple districts to dilute their voting power. The video uses the example of North Carolina A&T State University being split into two districts to illustrate cracking, and the manipulation of a State House district to pack minority voters.

💡Political Representation

Political representation is the concept of elected officials reflecting the interests and views of their constituents. The video discusses how gerrymandering in Asheville and North Carolina has led to a situation where the political representation does not align with the political spectrum of the population, leading to a sense of disenfranchisement among voters.

💡Red Map Project

The Red Map Project was a strategic initiative by the Republican Party to gain control of state legislatures ahead of the 2011 redistricting. The video explains how this project involved focusing resources on key state legislative races to ensure that Republicans would be in charge of drawing congressional districts, which led to a significant advantage for the party in subsequent elections.

💡Efficiency Gap

The efficiency gap is a statistical measurement used to determine the extent of partisan advantage in an electoral map. It calculates the difference between the 'wasted' votes for each party (votes that do not contribute to a win). The video mentions that the Supreme Court may consider the efficiency gap as a way to measure gerrymandering, which could have significant implications for future redistricting and political representation.

💡State Legislature

A state legislature is the legislative body of a US state, responsible for making laws and regulations. The video discusses how control of state legislatures can influence the redistricting process, as seen with the Republican Party's strategy in the Red Map Project. It also highlights the imbalance in North Carolina's state legislature, where Republicans hold a majority despite more registered Democrats.

💡Polarization

Polarization refers to the division of a group or society into opposing factions with little common ground. The video touches on the idea that gerrymandering can exacerbate political polarization by creating 'safe' districts for one party, pushing politicians to adopt more extreme positions to appeal to their base and reducing opportunities for bipartisan cooperation.

💡Fairness in Elections

Fairness in elections is a principle that ensures all votes have equal weight and that electoral boundaries are drawn impartially. The video argues that gerrymandering undermines this principle by manipulating district boundaries for political advantage, leading to a distortion of the democratic process and a sense that certain voters' voices are being silenced.

💡Bipartisan Support

Bipartisan support refers to agreement or cooperation between two major political parties. The video mentions a growing bipartisan consensus against gerrymandering, suggesting that both Democrats and Republicans recognize the negative impact of this practice on the democratic process and are seeking reforms to ensure fairer elections.

Highlights

Asheville, known for its liberal population, was made politically competitive due to a 2011 redistricting that split the city into two conservative districts.

Congressional districts are supposed to have similar populations, coherent geographic shapes, and keep communities with similar interests together.

Asheville's political influence was dramatically affected by redistricting, which divided the city's liberal population into conservative districts.

Gerrymandering has led to a perception among Asheville voters that their voice has been eradicated.

The redistricting process in North Carolina is controlled by the party in power in the State House, which has been the Republicans.

The REDMAP project was a strategic plan by Republicans to invest in state legislative races to influence redistricting based on census data.

Gerrymandering techniques like cracking and packing are used to manipulate district lines for political advantage.

Cracking disperses voters of one party across multiple districts, while packing concentrates them in a few districts to minimize their influence.

North Carolina A&T State University, a historically black college, was split into two districts, diluting the student vote.

Packing was used in North Carolina to concentrate minority voters in specific districts, affecting their influence in other races.

Despite more registered Democrats than Republicans, Republicans hold 64% of the state assembly seats due to gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering has led to historically low congressional approval ratings and bipartisan support for its termination.

California has successfully combated gerrymandering through redistricting reform, creating a more balanced political landscape.

The efficiency gap is a statistical measurement that quantifies the extent of partisan advantage in redistricting.

The Supreme Court's upcoming case on Wisconsin State Assembly districts could set a precedent for using the efficiency gap to measure gerrymandering.

The architect of REDMAP does not regret the strategy, believing it was beneficial for the Republican party and the direction they were heading.

Transcripts

[Music]

take a deep breath a good job go ahead

and bring your hands to your knees

drop your chin to your chest breathe in

welcome to Asheville take a deep breath

where are yo --ga exhale is you know

with those I was surprised to learn that

there was go yogi

evil rites petitions and a lot of

liberal people in such a conservative

congressional district yeah

well the thing about our district is it

is kind of cut up a little bit what do

you mean the way that they do our

districts Asheville would be a very

progressive district if it weren't for

the fact that they've kind of cut it

right down the middle congressional

districts in the u.s. are typically

supposed to have similar populations

resemble a coherent Geographic shape and

keep communities with similar interests

together of the 435 congressional

districts in the US North Carolina has

13 in one of those districts the city of

Asheville is large liberal-leaning

population made it competitive for a

Democrat to win until a 2011 redrawing

divided the city's population into two

otherwise conservative districts and

permanently altered the political

landscape

[Music]

Asheville mayor Esther manheimer a

Democrat has seen the city's

representation dramatically change over

the last decade the political

environment here is far outside of the

average of North Carolina I would say

after 2011 redistricting how was

Asheville affected it was dramatically

affected Asheville used to have a

congressional district that took in all

of Asheville in all of Western North

Carolina and it supported congressman

Heath Shuler who was an excellent

balance of what you get when you add

Asheville to Western North Carolina

because Asheville is very liberal but

Western North Carolina tends to be more

conservative and then with redistricting

by the Republican state legislature

Asheville was split into two very

conservative congressional districts

where there's no question these

districts don't represent where

Asheville is on the political spectrum

by splitting the city into two districts

Asheville's liberal population was

absorbed by two other more populated

conservative districts so what happened

to the influence of voters in Asheville

they feel that their voice has been

eradicated by gerrymandering

gerrymandering or the manipulation of

district voting maps for the advantage

of one political party helped ensure

that moderate Democrat Heath Shuler

would be replaced by one of the most

far-right Republicans in office today

mark meadows we caught up with Heath in

his former district well here's the city

and it once was all the 11th district

and now democratic-leaning precincts

which essentially took in the whole city

of Asheville are now in the 10th

district redistricting in North Carolina

is done by state legislators from the

party in power of the State House in

this case the Republicans when they were

drawing the lines people were calling me

would you like to have this precinct if

you'll give up this precinct I'm like

that's not the way this should work it's

not fair to the community let's draw

these lines the way they should be drawn

based upon fairness stop the

gerrymandering the product

goes back to 1812 when Massachusetts

governor Elbridge Gary's Democratic

Republican Party engineer district lines

to help his own party make gains in the

state Senate a cartoonist satirize

carries voting district as looking like

a salamander and the term gerrymander

was coined since then

voting districts have been drawn much

more precisely after 2010 Republican

state legislators took over the

redrawing process and have since been

able to make 10 of the state's 13

congressional seats safely conservative

despite there being more registered

Democrats than Republicans this GOP

success in North Carolina was actually a

part of a broader and highly effective

national strategy called red map we

spoke to its architect Christian Kowski

so you are the mastermind behind I think

what will be known as a historic in the

great 2011 gerrymandering which is still

in many ways dictating politics in our

country how did you decide to pursue

that well really started after a wait

and Obama's historic win where he really

shifted a number of political dynamics

in the country and so as Republicans we

were looking at okay what's the path

back and one of it was obviously how do

we get control of the US House of

Representatives what is red not red map

is a strategic plan to pull money on the

national level and invest it into the

key state legislative races where there

was going to be a redrawing of

congressional lines based on the census

data and focusing on the states that

were either going to lose a

congressional seat or gain a

congressional seat to have maximum

impact the direct results of the red map

project on the state legislative level

was to put Republicans at the table to

draw the lines people ask me about red

map and is it wasn't it so unfair what

you did and I said well we took the

rules that applied we told them what we

were gonna do and we did it and it we

did it in a year that was obviously

historic in itself since red map

Democrats have lost more than 900 state

legislature seats across the country

these state House wins have given the

Republicans unprecedented map making

power

scholar and lawyer Nick Stephanopoulos

showed us one of the modern tools

legislators can use to redraw districts

so this is Mapp titude for redistricting

map titude will give you information

about the populations of all of the

districts you're constructing that would

let you forecast how different districts

would perform under different

configurations in future elections the

city of Asheville for example is split

in two because if it were kept whole it

might have been enough for a Democratic

congressional district so what are you

doing right now

I have told matta two that I want to add

counties to district 11 and I want them

to come from district 10 you highlight

as many of them as you want to assign

click the assign button and all of a

sudden those counties will now be in the

district you put them in and they will

no longer be in the old district you can

see all of a sudden district 11 just

swallowed up to two-thirds of district

10 in 30 seconds exactly no Democrats

can do winning those districts it's a

good computer game it's a fairly easy

computer game and the two main

strategies to win that game and state

elections are called cracking and

packing partisan gerrymandering always

takes place through these two techniques

of cracking and packing tracking refers

to dispersing the other side's voters

across a relatively large number of

districts and packing refers to over

concentrating the other side's voters in

a few districts where their preferred

candidates consistently win by enormous

margins so just to be clear this process

is legal and it's necessary across the

country so what's the problem it's

necessary because we need to make sure

the districts have the same populations

but there is effectively no legal limit

whatsoever to how extreme their partisan

gerrymandering can be

and some of the most extreme examples

can be found in urban areas which tend

to have dense liberal populations to see

the effects of cracking we went to North

Carolina A&T State University North

Carolina A&T is a historically black

college and university there about

10,000 students here so if you take

10,000 students that's definitely enough

especially in a smaller congressional

election to swing a vote Oh auntie was

actually split into two different dishes

right now we're in congressional

district 13 this street is Laurel Street

and this is the street that divides the

campus for voting purposes their vote is

now correct

so that building right there is a

different congressional district than

where we're standing yes 50 feet away

right so now that vote has been divided

exactly and have 5,000 students still

significant but when you put this campus

in the broader map of the district is a

much smaller much weaker vote so while

cracking is used to break up votes

packing clusters voters of one party

together we saw our Republican

legislators applied this technique to

smaller State House races

[Applause]

morning Thomas stand before you you

think Republican mapmakers packed

thousands of new minority voters into

State House Democrat garland Pierce's

district a move that pulled minority

voters out of other races that they

would have had more influence in so

what's this here

this is House District 48 in the yellow

in the yellow and I say this starts this

is on the way to Greensboro North

Carolina 220 and this is the furthest

point in the south which is Fairmont

limited representative Pierce's district

now weaves in and out of four counties

across a hundred miles in the southern

part of the state so why is the district

shaped like this to stack impact my dogs

do you think that the makeup of the

state legislature right now

represents the North Carolina population

as a whole no ma'am no ma'am

a neighborhood should never be split

precincts and they would be split they'd

use the power of opinion to really put

themself in a position to leave for a

while that effort has now led to

Republicans occupying 64% of the state

assembly seats despite there being more

registered Democrats than Republicans in

the state this isn't just happening in

North Carolina the GOP went from

controlling 14 state legislators in 2010

to 32 this year and as districts have

been redrawn over that same time maps

that once contained blue are

consistently turning red with

congressional approval ratings at

historic lows there's now bipartisan

support for the termination of

gerrymandering this is a very dynamic

office you have here well this is the

predator that fought see the video real

stud like me then you fight the predator

with your bare hands and wipe them out

then here the Terminator they're

traveling through time cause if I could

do this in real life I will travel back

to 1812 and wipe out the gerrymandering

in the movies will be easy because it

just would you know go in the room

where they draw the mats and blow up the

room so everyone out of the room burn

the maps and then have honest people

draw the district lines gerrymandering

sucks because it's all designed for

helping the politicians but not the

ordinary citizen do you think that

voters know that their voter influence

is in some cases being taken away or

that their votes are being manipulated

because it's a very complicated issues

and very hard to kind of it's not the

sexy issue that people can jump on and

get involved with so only recently it

has now come out because there's such a

lack of performance and Congress is such

a low approval rating that people say

wait a minute we got to do something

about it when you first took office as

governor of California how bad was the

gerrymandering here it was like

Republicans were all locked into one

district and Democrats were all locked

into one district so the Republicans had

to be as far to the right as possible in

order to win the Democrats had to be as

far as possible to the left so how do

you get them together to agree to

something or the least compromise to get

something done I remember before we did

the redistricting reform in California

we had 265 congressional elections and

only one in 10 years changed party hands

only one think about that we in

California went all out and declared war

and gerrymandering and we have done away

with it but it's not gonna ever be

perfect unless you literally take it

away from the legislators altogether

that's the ideal thing is to take it

away from them and have ordinary folks

create a commission there is no interest

in the party and the key thing now is is

is for the Supreme Court to really

understand the complexity of the issue

until now the Supreme Court didn't have

a way to mathematically determine the

extent to which a district had been

gerrymandered by party but Nick

Stephanopoulos may have

pollution you created a statistical

measurement called the efficiency gap

what is that

so the efficiency gap is meant to be a

measure of the extent of partisan

advantage the key here is to realize

that both cracking and packing produce

what political scientists call wasted

votes so it'll tell you in a single

number the direction and the magnitude

of a plans partisans you in October the

Supreme Court will hear arguments for a

case about Wisconsin State Assembly

districts that could open the door for

the efficiency gap to be used across the

country any precedent set in this case

could also affect the balance of power

in Washington DC if they do that that's

still a subjective standard and you can

be assured that they'll just be more

lawyers in lawsuits challenging these

lines do you have any regrets

for something that you hope to create no

I just don't I did it because I actually

think that putting Republicans in charge

of state government is a good thing

do I like polarization know what I like

compromise depends but I don't feel bad

at all about giving my party advantage

because I believe ultimately and what

we're trying to do and it looks like

they're the Democrats they're gonna do

it themselves

so it there's become an arms race

quality to it which I don't like but I

don't we don't tend to lose

you

you