Wasted Votes

In the second episode of The Consent of the Governed, host Carter Hanson discusses the 2003 Texas re-redistricting and the Democrats’ legislative rebellion, the benefits and drawbacks of the efficiency gap, and the future of the efficiency gap after the Supreme Court’s Gill v. Whitford ruling.

From the episode: “In Bandemer v. Davis, the Supreme Court ruled that partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional if extreme enough. Since that ruling in 1986, anti-gerrymandering advocates have been trying to prove that it is extreme enough, without much success. My response is, in the words of Wendy Tam Cho, ‘If you’re never going to declare a partisan gerrymander, what is it that’s unconstitutional?’”

The Consent of the Governed is hosted, produced, and written by Carter Hanson, from his home in Boulder, Colorado. The Consent of the Governed is the main expression of my Kolbe Fellowship project. The Kolbe Fellowship program is a ten-week research fellowship for social sciences and humanities students at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Consent of the Governed’s theme music was written by Natalie Dolan and James Lamb. Thanks Professor Beth Campbell Hetrick, who is the faculty advisor for this project. You can find us on Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and Medium.