POLI 365 1nd Edition Lecture 8 Outline of Last Lecture I. Electing State Government Officials (cont.)II. Voter TurnoutIII. Traditional Democratic Domination of the South IV. Realignment Outline of Current Lecture I. Legislative Structure II. State Redistricting Current LectureI. Legislative Structurea. In basic structure, about all of the states are the sameb. Size of State Legislaturesi. Smallest: Nebraska: 49 legislatures1. Only state to have a unicameral legislature (only one chamber)ii. Largest: New Hampshire: 424 legislatures in both housesiii. Average: 148 legislatures iv. South Carolina: 170 legislaturesv. Costs and Benefits of Larger Legislatures 1. Benefits: more representation, more homogenous groups2. Costs: more costly, less efficientc. Election of Legislatures i. Single-member districts: districts are represented by one personii. Multi-member districts: districts are represented by more than one person (8 states have multi-member districts). This is usually beneficial forareas with high population density. As a whole, multi-membered districts are not beneficial to minorities. 1. Pooled elections: all candidates are on the same ballot and are running against each other. These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.2. Seats: only elect one person at a time for a specific seat. d. Terms of Office i. Mostly 4 years for Senate, 2 years for House (US Senate: 6 years) ii. Term Limits: a limit on the number of terms that a state legislature can hold their job. Some states have term limits, others do not. II. State Redistricting a. State redistricting: process of redrawing state districts. States have the authority to determine lines for both US Congressional districts and state house and senatedistricts. The lines are updated after the US census every 10 years.i. The federal government decides how many congressional districts we get as a state, but the states decide how to draw them. b. Who redistricts? i. Traditionally, state legislatures were in charge of redistricting. 26 states still have the legislatures redistrict. There is a huge conflict of interest when legislatures redistrict. They have a partisan agenda and want to maximize the number of seats held by their party. In South Carolina, statelegislatures redistrict. ii. Some states (13) have redistricting commissions. These commissions attempt to be bipartisan, and attempt to maximize representation. iii. The rest of the states have a combination of the two, but the legislatures have the final say. c. Gerrymandering and Redistricting i. Prior to the 1960s, state legislatures had full control and few limits on how to redistrict. This meant that there was unlimited gerrymandering: redrawing the district boundaries in order to benefit a political party through maximizing your party’s chances of winning as many seats as possible in the next election. There are two general strategies:1. Cracking: drawing lines to split up supporters of the minority partyso that it is easier for the leading party to gain the majority. Makesminority party less effective. 2. Packing: drawing lines to concentrate opponent voters into as few districts as possible so that the majority of the districts are safe forthe majority party. Concedes a few districts to the minority party.ii. Silent gerrymandering: no redrawing of district lines, just leaving the district lines in place. This leads to malapportionment; rural areas were very over-represented, and urban areas were very under-represented. This led to greater underrepresentation of minority groups. d. Federal Government Influence on Redistricting i. Supreme Court ruled in Reynolds v. Sims saying that congressional and state districts had to be roughly equal in population. “One man, onevote.” Court said it wasn’t fair for certain areas to be underrepresented and others to be overrepresented. ii. Executive Branch passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965: outlawed Jim Crowe laws that prevented black citizens from voting. Said that everyone, regardless of race, deserves a meaningful vote. Therefore, states could not draw district lines to silence the voices of minorities. States with a history of discriminating against minorities had to have their drawing of lines pre-approved by the federal government, a process known as