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