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Gerrymandering

"What does all this mean? It means states can actually control the extent of gerrymandering. Take New York, for example. It's the one state among the eight that has shown a meaningful decrease in the level of gerrymandering across multiple congressional terms. New York also has also set up an independent advisory commission that recommends congressional and state redistricting plans to the state legislature. This commission was set up in 1978, and shortly thereafter the level of gerrymandering in the state peaked and has been declining ever since.
While the New York legislature is not bound to follow the advisory committee's recommendations, this does suggest that subjecting legislators to some oversight in the redistricting process could rein in their enthusiasm for rigging that process in their favor" (Ingraham).

 In this quote, Ingraham is using the decrease in gerrymandering in New York to demonstrate how gerrymandering is not an unsolvable issue. He is explaining how even non binding oversight can limit and help control this issue and that the avenues to limit gerrymandering are there but the legislators of some states simply don't want to pursue them.

I chose this quote to discuss because it breaks the complicated issue of gerrymandering into much simpler terms; if there is no oversight then the legislators will not hesitate to do everything in there power to rig the process. The legislators, much like everyone else, are flawed human beings and although it is completely reasonable to expect our leaders to not take advantage of our system, we still need to be cautious and take steps to ensure that they at least have to think twice before they gerrymander. 

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