{"id":13140,"date":"2016-07-20T14:32:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T14:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/census-bureau-fails-to-change-harmful-representation-system\/"},"modified":"2016-07-20T14:32:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T14:32:00","slug":"census-bureau-fails-to-change-harmful-representation-system","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/de\/articles\/census-bureau-fails-to-change-harmful-representation-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Census Bureau fails to change harmful representation system"},"template":"","class_list":["post-13140","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry","article_type-blog-post"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"Prison-based gerrymandering threatens our democracy’s commitment to fair representation. The practice leads to certain districts becoming largely composed of voiceless individuals, since prisoners cannot vote in most states.","featured_image":4554,"article_type":1103,"authors":["{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":13127}","{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":9060}"],"related_issues":[103,138,2066],"related_work":false,"location":null},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"Last month, the Federal Census Bureau failed to end prison-based gerrymandering.\r\n\r\nPrison-based gerrymandering threatens our democracy\u2019s commitment to fair representation. The practice leads to certain districts becoming largely composed of voiceless individuals, since prisoners cannot vote in most states. As a result, the voters in these districts receive inflated representation, while the districts where the incarcerated people truly reside are underrepresented.\r\n\r\nLetters written by Common Cause organization leaders highlight local examples to portray the effects of prison-based gerrymandering. Florida Common Cause State Board Chair Peter Butzin demonstrate the disproportionate power given to voters in districts with prisons. In Florida\u2019s Calhoun County, 48% of the people in District 4 are incarcerated at the Calhoun Correctional Institution. As a result, Butzin stated, \u201cthe actual residents of District 4 are given almost twice as much political clout as people elsewhere in the county.\u201d\u00a0 These effects were observed in every state that Common Cause submitted a letter. When one person\u2019s vote has twice the influence of other votes, it is evident that our nation\u2019s principle of \u201cone person, one vote\u201d is being violated.\r\n\r\nIncarcerated people do not reside in these districts in any meaningful way. As Jay Heck, Executive Director of Wisconsin Common Cause, commented, \u201cthey are not a part of the districts where their prisons are located and never will be \u2013 they don\u2019t use the roads, visit the libraries, enjoy the state\u2019s public education, or walk through the parks.\u201d Recent research has also indicated that in states like Rhode Island, people stay incarcerated for an average of 100 days, which would otherwise not be considered a change in residency but for the individual\u2019s imprisonment - a glaring double standard. For all purposes, incarcerated peoples simply do not reside in the districts where their prisons are located.\r\n\r\nHeck said that the Census Bureau\u2019s methods not only skew district populations but also paint a flawed picture of their demographic makeup. Wisconsin\u2019s District 53, for example, appears to have a larger African-American population than 74 other districts. But in reality, of the 2,784 African-Americans in the district, all but 590 are incarcerated. Brian Gladstein, Director of Programs and Strategy for Common Cause Illinois said that, \u201cthe Census Bureau\u2019s rules concentrate a population that is disproportionately male, urban, and African-American or Latino into just 5,393 Census blocks that are located far from the actual homes of incarcerated people.\u201d\r\n\r\nThis flawed demographic makeup disproportionately affects minorities. Prisons are typically located in rural, white districts, whereas incarcerated populations are disproportionately African American or Hispanic from urban areas - a reflection generally of disparities in the correction system\u2019s treatment between whites and people of color. For incarcerated peoples, this means that voters in their current districts do not reflect their demographics or interests. In response to this misrepresentation, Common Cause notes that a fair redistricting process must comply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protects minority communities\u2019 opportunities \u201cto participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhile many states believe prison-based gerrymandering is a very important issue and have taken measures to stop it, it is challenging without the assistance of the Federal Census Bureau. New York, for example, implemented a law to stop prison-based gerrymandering but faced numerous technical challenges, partisan opposition, and extreme delays in receiving data. Massachusetts tried to implement similar reforms, but found that they were prohibited from creating rules that were inconsistent with those of the Federal Bureau by their state constitution.\r\n\r\nAs Allegra Chapman, Common Cause\u2019s Director of Voting and Elections, commented, \u201cthe reality is that most states adopt the Bureau\u2019s definition of \u201cresidence\u201d when allocating individuals for redistricting purposes. An ad-hoc approach on how to apportion incarcerated persons is neither efficient nor fair; votes across districts, and across the country, should hold the same weight.\u201d\r\n\r\nEnding prison-based gerrymandering is vital to our democracy. Barry Kauffman, Pennsylvania Common Cause Executive Director, explained that voters must believe their votes are meaningful if they are going to participate in elections, and they need to have the opportunity to hold their elected officials accountable. That means we must have competitive elections and every voter\u2019s vote must have nearly equal value. Even the perception of prison-based gerrymandering, said Georgia Common Cause Executive Director Brinkley Serkedakis, erodes trust in the system, further exacerbating low voter turnout and poor political engagement.\r\n\r\nAlthough the Federal Census Bureau failed to adjust its rules, Common Cause will continue with national, state, and local efforts to end prison-based gerrymandering.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll continue to impress upon the Bureau the need to change this very outdated rule."}}]},"yoast_head":"\nCensus Bureau fails to change harmful representation system - Common Cause<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/de\/artikel-2\/census-bureau-fails-to-change-harmful-representation-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Census Bureau fails to change harmful representation system\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/de\/artikel-2\/census-bureau-fails-to-change-harmful-representation-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CommonCause\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/CC-Share-Graphic-Main9.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CommonCause\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/census-bureau-fails-to-change-harmful-representation-system\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/census-bureau-fails-to-change-harmful-representation-system\/\",\"name\":\"Census Bureau fails to change harmful representation system - 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