Redistricting Responsible For 17 Extra Republican Seats in Congress

Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

The report, titled ‘Extreme Maps‘, is from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law:

A new report from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law finds that extreme partisan bias in congressional maps account for at least 16-17 Republican seats in the current Congress –a significant portion of the 24 seats Democrats would need to gain control of the House in 2020 – and that only a small number of swing states account for the vast majority of this partisan skew.

Extreme Maps, the first in-depth report to use data from the 2016 election as well as the 2014 and 2012 cycles, focuses on the most egregious map-drawing abuses. The congressional maps in question have high levels of “partisan bias” – the degree of systematic advantage one party receives over another in turning votes into seats – under at least three widely accepted statistical measures.

Among the report’s key findings:

• This decade’s congressional maps consistently benefit Republicans

•  Extreme maps have proved remarkably durable

•  Just six swing states and Texas account for almost all the bias

•  Maps drawn by independent commissions, courts, or split-party state governments had less bias