Yes, there’s a “rigged election”: The one that ensures a Republican House majority

[G_j]

http://www.salon.com/2016/10/22/yes-theres-a-rigged-election-the-one-that-ensures-a-republican-house-majority/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow


Democrats appear headed for their biggest presidential election in years. Nate Silver has Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as an 86 percent favorite to move back to the White House. Some polls have given her leads in reliably red states like Arizona and Georgia. Iowa and Nevada are slipping away from Republican nominee Donald Trump; Texas is tightening; Virginia is gone.

Polling averages by Silver and RealClearPolitics suggest that the Republican nominee’s fight is fading in the key battleground states of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

It takes quite a Democratic wave to tilt this many states even powder blue. But most nonpartisan analysts suggest this will not be enough to tilt the House of Representatives. The GOP holds a 30-seat majority in the House. The University of Virginia’s respected Crystal Ball says that as of today, less that three weeks from the election, only 37 competitive districts remain. Of those, 17 are toss-ups, 10 favor the Democrats and 10 lean Republican.

That means Democrats could win all the close races leaning their way and sweep all 17 toss-ups and the Republicans would still keep control of the House. In those key five battleground states? Republicans currently hold 49 of 69 congressional seats and Crystal Ball believes that only one of those Republican incumbents is even vulnerable.

Why is this? The reason is clear: In those five states and many others, Republicans had veto-proof control over the drawing of new congressional districts after the 2010 census. Republican strategists executed a savvy plan in 2010 to flip control of the state legislatures that control redistricting, then took advantage of high-tech mapping tools and draw themselves a decade of control at the state and national level.


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[saidsimplesimon]

1. k&r

Yes, the districts have been redrawned with lots of Koch funded surragates preaching their brand of divide and conquer. That's millions, if not billions of dollars folks. Citizens United will be a dark spot on the reputation of our Supreme Court. imo as always

[progree]

2. This Election Is Being Rigged — But Not By Democrats, by Ari Berman, The Nation, billmoyers.com

http://billmoyers.com/story/election-rigged-not-democrats/

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/10/19/the_real_vote_rigging_republicans_make

Mostly by selective voter disenfranchisement in all its many forms -- e.g. voter ID, caging, voter purges. Paper trails would be nice too, otherwise we just have black box voting in voting machines made by Republican-owned companies.

[Thunderbeast]

3. Democrats were caught asleep by the GOP in 2010

Scarred and bruised from the Affordable Care Act fight, Dems were blindsided by the vitriol of the Tea Party Republicans and the scorched earth policy they enacted. Key to their strategy was to win down-ballot races that would enable them to re-draw congressional districts.

I would not be surprised to see a push for more states to implement proportional votes in the Electoral College (as is done in Nebraska and Maine). This strategy optimizes electoral power by taking advantage of gerrymandered congressional districts to allocate presidential votes. Had proportional voting been implemented by all 50 states in 2012, Mitt Romney would have been elected with a minority of the popular vote.

[mackdaddy]

6. Part of this was Self Inflicted. Dumping the "50 state Strategy" and

Dumping Howard Dean for DWS really screwed Ohio in 2010.

[Willie Pep]

4. This is a huge issue.

We need to win back the state legislatures and governorships. This needs to be mission number one for the Democrats goings forward.

[uponit7771]

5. This issue is real