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American Democracy Minute Radio News Report for June 19, 2025
The #NorthCarolina #legislature once again finds itself in #federal #court for two #racial #gerrymandering cases in a trial beginning June 16th. Voters and three pro-voter groups accuse GOP leaders of violating the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

🎧 90-Sec. Listen, 📖 Read, 🔗 Resources 📣 Groups

https://www.americandemocracyminute.org/wethepeople/2025/06/18/once-again-the-north-carolina-legislature-finds-itself-in-court-for-racial-gerrymandering/

As a South African who witnessed the collapse of Apartheid and the birth of a democracy, I was raised to believe in the power of people over politics. But living in the United States today, I can’t help but question the democratic ideals this country so proudly claims. With structures like the Electoral College, rampant gerrymandering, lifetime judicial appointments, and the corrupting influence of money in politics, the U.S. system often feels more performative than participatory.

True democracy is one person, one vote, no exceptions. It demands accountability, equity, and inclusion. Anything less is domination dressed as democracy. In this piece, I explore where democracy began, how it evolved, and what it will take to restore its promise—not just in America, but everywhere it’s under threat.

#CampaignFinanceReform, #ConstitutionalReform, #Democracy, #DemocraticCrisis, #ElectoralReform, #EqualRepresentation, #Gerrymandering, #HumanRights, #JCvZ, #OnePersonOneVote, #PoliticalAccountability, #ProgressivePolitics, #SaveDemocracy, #SouthAfricanPerspective, #USPolitics, #VoiceOfThePeople

https://juavanzyl.vivaldi.net/2025/06/16/america-faux-democracy/

#Texas GOP congressional delegation meets to discuss redrawing districts ahead of midterms https://feeds.texastribune.org/link/16799/17048187/texas-redistricting-congress-house-republicans-midterms #Gerrymandering

Corporate judges rule in favor of state in #Arkansas congressional redistricting lawsuit https://arkansasadvocate.com/2025/06/06/federal-panel-rules-in-favor-of-state-in-arkansas-congressional-redistricting-lawsuit/ #Gerrymandering

#American #Democracy Minute #Radio #News Report for June 9, 2025

A three-judge panel dismissed a case June 6th by a group of #Black #Arkansas #voters that the state #legislature racially gerrymandered Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District. It’s the state’s fourth redistricting challenge since 2021.

🎧 90-Sec. Listen, 📖 Read, 🔗 Resources 📣 Groups

https://www.americandemocracyminute.org/wethepeople/2025/06/08/arkansas-congressional-district-racial-gerrymandering-case-dismissed-by-federal-court-panel/
#gerrymandering #racism #votersuppression

#politics #texas #democracydocket #voters #votes #tarrantcounty #gerrymandering #alt

Democracy Docket
Gerrymandering Tarrant County Texas

I just checked the map of bigoted Congressperson Mary Miller’s district and oh my gosh is it gerrymandering run amok. #USpol #ILpol #Congress #gerrymandering #Illinois

Map of the 15th congressional district of Illinois which is a blob with a very conspicuous void running through the middle of it.

I just checked the map of bigoted Congressperson Mary Miller’s district and oh my gosh is it gerrymandering run amok.

#USpol #ILpol #Congress #gerrymandering #Illinois

https://www.propublica.org/article/red-state-ballot-initiatives-gop-republicans-florida-missouri

#Politics #DirectDemocracy #Propublica #PulitzerPrize #BallotMeasures #BallotInitiatives #Progressive #USA #America #Law #Justice #Republicans #Democrats #Vote #GerryMandering #MoneyInPolitics #Influence #Majority #Religion #CorporateGreed #Oligarchs #EatTheRich #RedStates #BlueStates #Democracy #States #Voters #Constitution #Florida #Missouri #TheWestIsBest

The real threat lurking was always to steal the #2024election.

Whether it was through theft or the aggressively targeted #gerrymandering and #voter suppression tactics or limiting voting access or the lack of voting information, the 2024 election was not free or fair.

The real threat is that these bills are quietly setting Republicans up to steal the 2024 Presidential election after failing in 2020.

Ugly Gerry, a font whose characters consist of shapes of U.S. congressional districts, has been called 'the world's most revolting font' and I have to agree 😂

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_Gerry

#fonts #gerrymandering #UglyFonts

Ugly Gerry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_Gerry

#HackerNews #UglyGerry #GerryMandering #PoliticalDebate #Democracy #Issues #News

Today i learned about the font Ugly Gerry: "Ugly Gerry is a free font created with real US congressional districts. The name comes from #gerrymandering, the process that made possible such weird shapes."
"It is a font whose characters consist of shapes of United States congressional districts, its intention being to protest gerrymandering." (Wikipedia)
What a creative way of protest!
https://fontsarena.com/ugly-gerry/ #creative #meme

Text: "This is what Gerrymandering looks like!" written in the font Ugly Gerry

Hi, I'm Evan (he/any).

TLDR: I'm a privileged white hetero-cis-male politically #left #TriratnaBuddhist #SoftwareEngineer (#IHelpPeopleGetJobs) currently in #Seattle but planning to move to #AotearoaNZ or #Australia as so as we can manage it with my wife & 3 kids

I'm politically #left (at least in United States terms). I'm a #voting nerd in that I have a favorite voting-related textbook (Collective Decisions and Voting by Nicolaus Tideman).

I think we could mostly solve #gerrymandering by making larger districts with ~5 representatives instead of just 1 and then using #SingleTransferableVote. That would strike a nice balance between local & proportional representation. For single-person positions, like presidents/governors/mayors, STV becomes #RankedChoiceVoting (aka #InstantRunoffVoting aka #AlternativeVote) which eliminates the spoiler effect and leads to more civil campaigns.

Plus, #RankedChoiceVoting eliminates the need for primaries and runoffs, which can lead to significant cost reductions.

I'm training for ordination with the #TriratnaBuddhist Order (#dhamma, #dharma, #Buddhism) and have been for many years. It's a long process, especially with other things going on. I've done some kind of #meditation (mostly #anapanasati) every day for over 3 years and more sporadically since 2006.

That said, I do take issue with some of the things the founder (Sangharakshita) did, and I'm concerned with a recent rise in sort of guru worship around. I can have gratitude for his explanation of the dharma, try to sort out the idiosyncratic bits, and still view him as a deeply flawed human being.

I write #software for http://indeed.com (job search site) (previously employed by Amazon). I've written a lot of #database-backed #webservices in #Java, but in the last few years, I've been working on #microfrontend platforms in #JavaScript & #TypeScript, primarily supporting #React. I have more knowledge about #Webpack #ModuleFederation than anyone should be cursed with. I'd love to try #SolidJS, #RustLang seems really cool, and I'm excited about the future of #WebAssembly.

My wife & I have fantasized about moving to #AotearoaNZ or #Australia since well before the pandemic, and now we're actively trying make it happen. Since we're both in high-demand professions (she's a nurse), I think it should go reasonably smoothly 🤞. Feel free to get in touch with job opportunities that offer visa sponsorship, suggestions for #kiwiana or Australian culture that will help us adapt, reasons that your city is the best, etc. I always blow on the pie when I wear my jandals to the dairy. If we ship things over, I can only hope that the front doesn't fall off the boat. I hear that only rarely happens.

My daughter Juniper was born at the beginning of 2020, so her experience of life and my experience of parenthood are both tightly linked to the pandemic. On the upside, I get to work remotely, which means I get more time with her. She's a lot of fun (and of course a lot of work).

Then, we had our twins Heath & Magnolia (Noli) in September 2023, and our lives got even more hectic and full of love.

Juniper goes to a Waldorf school, and I wish I could go, too, but I think the adult version of Waldorf school might just be therapy.

The Moot Point of Gerrymandering

There is a mathematical risk for gerrymanderers:

https://tiereddemocraticgovernance.org/blog_details.php?blog_cat_id=21&id=191

#tiereddemocraticgovernance
#gerrymandering

Going back to 2015 is not where we need to be.

#US #Congress #gerrymandering #electoral #district #report
https://www.americandemocracyminute.org/wethepeople/2025/05/19/brennan-center-report-shows-gerrymanderings-impact-on-control-of-congress/

It’s a REALLY long ruling but the judges just go off on the #Alabama #Republican-controlled House #redistricting map & the fact that they completely ignored the court’s previous ruling.

Among other things, they find that #GOP lawmakers *intentionally* discriminated against #Black Alabamians when they passed a map that did not create a 2nd Black district.

#law #VotingRights #VRA #gerrymandering #BlackVotesMatter #racism

The Legislature’s conduct and that concession thrust this case into an unusual posture: we are not aware of any other case in which a state legislature — faced with a federal court order declaring that its electoral plan unlawfully dilutes minority votes and requiring a remedial plan that provides an additional opportunity district — responded with a plan that the state concedes does not provide that district.

As we explain below, despite our searching review of all the evidence before us — much of it directly from the Legislators and Legislature, none of it in dispute — try as we might, we cannot understand the 2023 Plan as anything other than an intentional effort to dilute Black Alabamians' voting strength and evade the unambiguous requirements of court orders standing in the way. After we and the Supreme Court ruled that the 2021 Plan, with only one majority-Black district, likely had the unlawful discriminatory effect of diluting Black Alabamians' votes, the Legislature deliberately enacted another Plan that it concedes lacks the second Black-opportunity district we said was required. This amounted to intentional racial discrimination in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection guarantee.

The other intensely local information that we have considered tells us that the statistical disparities in Alabama (and their causes and effects) are not like everywhere else, even if some of Alabama's statistics might be similar in some ways to statistics from other places. As just a few examples: the conditions in Alabama's Black Belt are sufficiently unique to startle seasoned, leading national scholars; school desegregation cases are still pending in federal courts in Alabama; and Alabama is the only state to have multiple jurisdictions bailed back into federal preclearance in the last ten years. To repeat what we have already said in another context (about crossover districts): things are different here.

Federal court issues final declaration that the #Alabama #legislature's 2023 House map violates federal #law.

3 judges all originally appointed by #GOP presidents (two #Trump, one Reagan).

In 2023, the court issued a preliminary injunction barring use of that map & imposed a court-drawn map for 2024. It may remain in place for the rest of the decade, but not clear.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.alnd.179302/gov.uscourts.alnd.179302.490.0_3.pdf

#VotingRights #gerrymandering #redistricting #BlackVotesMatter #racism

2024 US election data: Presidential election results broken down by congressional district
https://www.the-downballot.com/p/its-here-the-downballots-2024-presidential
#gerrymandering #politics #election #voting #uspol #data #+

#Gerrymandering

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