LANSING (WKZO AM/FM) — There was a record turnout in the Midterm election thanks to the blue wave, the pink wave, the surge of first time young voters who turned out to vote against gun violence and for marijuana, but it still apparnetly wasn’t enough to completely overcome the influence of gerrymandering.
The Citizens Research Council found that while 52% of the voters picked Democratic Candidates, and 47% voted for Republicans, the GOP still retained 53% of the seats and control in the State House and Senate, where gerrymanering makes the biggest difference.
That same 5% gap between the partisan vote allowed Democrats to nearly sweep all the statewide seats that were not impacted by gerrymandering.
The CRC concluded that while the effect of engineering the districts to favor Republican candidates was muted, it still impacted the outcome.
Similar analysis of the results in other gerrymandered states, like Wisconsin and North Carolina showed the same results, most voters voted blue but more red candidates won when gerrymandering was involved.
Proposal 2, which passed easily, should eliminate that voter distortion in future elections.
