What to Do about Turnout Bias in American Elections: A Response to Wink and Weber

Authors

  • Thomas L. Brunell

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2006.27.0.255-260

Abstract

At the end of the 2006 term, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision with respect to the Texas redistricting controversy. While in its decision (LULAC v. Perry) the court struck down one of the newly drawn districts (the 23rd) the case is more notable for what the court did not do. The Court did not see anything in the Constitution indicating that state legislatures are restricted as to when redistricting ought to be done. Traditionally the process is done after the new census data is delivered, usually in years ending in 1, and the new districts are in effect for elections in years ending in a 2. The state government in Texas was still divided in 2001 and a federal court ended up drawing new district boundaries, but after the GOP gained control in the next election they decided to redraw the congressional district lines more to their advantage for the 2004 election. Moreover a big part of the litigation was the claim that the Republicans had treated the Democrats unfairly enough in the new map that it constituted a partisan gerrymander and the Court, the Democrats claimed, ought to step in and doing something about it. The Justices did not strike down the map on these grounds and it is still unclear to most observers if the Court will step into the fray at some late date with respect to this issue.

References

Brunell, Thomas L. 2006. Rethinking Redistricting: How Drawing Uncompetitive Districts Eliminates Gerrymanders, Enhances Representation, and Improves Attitudes toward Congress. PS: Political Science and Politics 39:77-86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1049096506060173

Brunell, Thomas L. 1999. Partisan Bias in U.S. Congressional Elections, 1942-1996: Why the Senate is Usually More Republican than the House of Representatives. American Politics Quarterly 27:316-337. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1532673X99027003003

Campbell, James E. 1996. Cheap Seats: The Democratic Party's Advantage in U.S. House Elections. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

Grofman, Bernard, William Koetzle, and Thomas Brunell. 1997. An Integrated Perspective on the Three Potential Sources of Partisan Bias: Malapportionment, Turnout Differences, and the Geographic Distribution of Party Vote Shares. Electoral Studies 16:457-470. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0261-3794(97)00037-1

Taagapera, Rein and Matthew Soberg Shugart. 1989. Seats & Votes. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Wink, Kenneth A., and Ronald E. Weber. 2005. Do Democrats and Republicans Pay the Same Price for Seats in the U.S. State Lower House Elections? An Analysis of "Cheap Seats" in Forty-four States. The American Review of Politics 26:305-322. http://dx.doi.org/10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2005.26.0.305-322

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Published

2006-11-01

Issue

Vol. 27: Fall 2006

Section

Articles

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