It is obvious, by any definition, the process of redistricting the City Council wards of Cleveland is gerrymandering. The question is what to do about it. As stated in the title of this posting, "In gerrymandered election districts, the voters don't choose their politicians - the politicians choose their voters!" If that doesn't sufficiently define for you what Cleveland City Council President Sweeney has done, then how about the following...
Have you ever wondered why many politicians engage in political corruption without concern about voter anger and rejection at the next election? Or why they engage in punitive legislation targeting their opponents and even their own constituents? Or why they cater to special interests while ignoring the needs of their voter constituency? Or why incumbent politicians abuse illegal narcotic drugs and alcohol while in office, and still get re-elected?
Gerrymander is one of the significant reasons for such behavior. (Gerrymander is commonly pronounced with a soft g.) Gerrymandering is the drawing of election district boundary lines for partisan advantage, to favor the majority party and incumbent politicians of all political parties. A more strongly worded definition of gerrymander is the following: Gerrymandering is an abuse of the redistricting process to draw election district boundaries that give a significant unfair and undeserved vote count advantage in future elections to the majority political party, which controls the redistricting process, and to incumbent politicians of all political parties.
This is from FraudFactor: Gerrymander and Redistricting Fraud [1], and there is a link there to submit concerns that fraud is being committed... and tools to teach you about gerrymandering, as it is highly unlikely any reader of REALNEO is sufficiently informed about this issue, now front and center in planning the future of our neighborhoods and regional economy, so battered by our failed leadership... who are now Gerrymandering to stay in power and inflict more harm even longer.
What some politicians won't do for job security... for themseleves, and all their friends and family, and no others.... corruption seems to be their only distinctive competency.
Should you report this as FRAUD? Consider:
Gerrymandered voter districts created during redistricting by the majority party is a significant form of election fraud. All types of election districts can be and are gerrymandered, including congressional districts, state legislature districts, and local government districts such as county supervisor, city council, and school board districts. A gerrymandered redistricting map uses packing, vote dilution, and/or cracking to achieve the end results. Packing concentrates minority party voters into the fewest possible number of election districts. Vote dilution distributes minority party voters among many districts so their vote will not influence the election outcome in any one district. Packing and vote dilution can be combined by packing most of the minority party voters into the fewest possible districts, and then distributing the remaining minority party voters across the remaining districts to dilute their vote. Cracking divides incumbent minority party legislator districts and constituents up among multiple new districts possibly with a majority of majority party voters. In some gerrymander cases, multiple minority party incumbents are forced to run against each other in the same district. Voter registration, election vote results at the precinct level, differences in voter turnout, and projected future demographic trends may all be taken into account to fine-tune a gerrymander.
Bizarre election district boundaries are drawn to connect distant disjoint areas with thin strips of land running through unpopulated areas such as industrial parks and cemeteries, down highways and railroad tracks, and through bodies of water such as rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Such election district map boundaries give a disproportionate amount of legislative seats and political power to the majority party, which perpetuates the gerrymander cycle decade after decade. Gerrymander also creates safe noncompetitive election districts that promote massive fraud, corruption, and non-responsiveness on the part of all incumbents of the majority and minority political parties. Under gerrymander, it is even possible for the majority party to become the minority party in terms of voter registration and actual votes cast statewide, yet continue to control a majority of seats in the Legislature for many decades.
We need to determine the best enforcement authorities to have investigate this - obviously, the investigation cannot involve local experts and checks and balances as this is all happening right on their watch - local judges can't be trusted - the state of Ohio is a disgrace - this seems to need Federal attention.
Perhaps a good place to start is with FraudFactor... as I mentioned, they ask you to submit to them any fraud... anyone want to submit this one for your neighborhood?
Report election fraud, voter fraud, or other government or media fraud
To report election or voter fraud, or other government or media fraud, send your contact information and detailed factual information to the FraudFactor website:
F r a u d F a c t o r @ Y a h o o . c o m