{"id":9628,"date":"2024-03-21T15:09:27","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T16:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=9628"},"modified":"2024-03-21T17:01:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T17:01:18","slug":"the-redistricting-debate-continues-is-proportional-representation-truly-fair-or-legal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=9628","title":{"rendered":"The Redistricting Debate Continues: Is Proportional Representation Truly Fair or Legal?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/the-redistricting-debate-continues-is-proportional-representation-truly-fair-or-legal\/\">https:\/\/will-law.org\/the-redistricting-debate-continues-is-proportional-representation-truly-fair-or-legal\/<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"et_pb_section et_pb_section_0 et_section_regular\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_row et_pb_row_0\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_3_4 et_pb_column_0  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_0  et_pb_text_align_left et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\">\n<h1><strong>WILL examines yet another inadequate, flawed statistical measure for assessing legislative maps<\/strong><\/h1>\n<div><strong>The News:<\/strong> The Wisconsin Institute for Law &amp; Liberty (WILL) just released its newest redistricting report, <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Proportional-Representation-20240318.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Behind the Lines: Examining Proportional Representation in Redistricting<\/a>. The report dives into the problematic concept of proportional representation in the gerrymandering debate, especially considering a recent Supreme Court of Wisconsin decision on the state\u2019s legislative maps.\u00a0\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><strong>What Is Proportional Representation?<\/strong> Proportional representation is a statistical measure. It assumes that the percentage of aggregate, statewide vote won by one party should be the same as the percentage of legislative seats that that party wins (e.g., 50% of the vote should result 50% of the seats in the legislature). This standard is used to assess or define gerrymandering, but it has several problems. \u00a0<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><strong>The Quote:<\/strong> WILL Senior Research Analyst, Noah Diekemper, stated, \u201cProportional representation is a made-up goal with problematic consequences. It is not how legislative districts were legally or constitutionally designed to function and it ignores a state\u2019s political geography. Our report outlines just how far Wisconsin\u2019s \u2018redistricting debate\u2019 has fallen from the constitutional norms our Founders intended.\u201d \u00a0<\/div>\n<div>\u202f\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><strong>Problems of Proportional Representation:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Depending on the geographic distribution of partisan voters, proportional representation might be literally impossible.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It is notoriously hard for third-party candidates to win any races, even if they win a substantial percentage of the vote.<\/li>\n<li>The Founders and our constitution could have recognized proportional representation as a standard, but they chose not to. Instead, they recognized the importance of considering the varying interests among communities within the nation and states.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div><strong>Dig Deeper:\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Proportional-Representation-20240318.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Behind the Lines: Examining Proportional Representation in Redistricting<\/a>, March 2024\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_1_4 et_pb_column_1  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough et-last-child\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_team_member et_pb_team_member_0 clearfix  et_pb_text_align_center et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_team_member_image et-waypoint et_pb_animation_off\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"604\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/i-CCZ5XfS-X2.jpeg\" alt=\"Noah Diekemper\" class=\"wp-image-13648\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_team_member_description\">\n<h4 class=\"et_pb_module_header\">Noah Diekemper<\/h4>\n<p class=\"et_pb_member_position\">Senior Research Analyst<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Noah@will-law.org<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_team_member et_pb_team_member_1 clearfix  et_pb_text_align_center et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_team_member_image et-waypoint et_pb_animation_off\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"617\" height=\"980\" src=\"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/WILL_Flanders_Color_002_WEB_980x617_100ppi_Sharpened.jpg\" alt=\"Will Flanders, PHD\" class=\"wp-image-9280\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_team_member_description\">\n<h4 class=\"et_pb_module_header\">Will Flanders, PHD<\/h4>\n<p class=\"et_pb_member_position\">Research Director<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Flanders@will-law.org<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/the-redistricting-debate-continues-is-proportional-representation-truly-fair-or-legal\/\">The Redistricting Debate Continues: Is Proportional Representation Truly Fair or Legal?<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\">Wisconsin Institute for Law &amp; Liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at https:\/\/will-law.org\/the-redistricting-debate-continues-is-proportional-representation-truly-fair-or-legal\/ WILL examines yet another inadequate, flawed statistical measure for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9628"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9631,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9628\/revisions\/9631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}