Identificación para votar y manipulación de mapas electorales, ¿cómo afectan las elecciones?

integridad de las elecciones en 164 países, señaló que el puntaje de integridad electoral de Carolina del Norte era tan bajo como el de Cuba, Indonesia y Sierra Leona.

Las demandas por los mapas electorales no se hicieron esperar. Una corte ordenó que se vuelvan a diseñar, pero los nuevos mapas tenían los mismos problemas. El 3 de septiembre del 2019, un panel de jueces dictaminó que los nuevos mapas legislativos estatales estaban severamente manipulados de forma partidaria (gerrymandering) para beneficiar a los candidatos republicanos, lo que violan la Constitución del estado y debían una vez más ser rediseñados.

Hoy, el fallo de la nueva Corte Suprema estatal, anula todo el proceso anterior y, en la práctica, significa que los legisladores tendrán mayor libertad para trazar los límites de los escaños de la Asamblea General para la próxima década.

El regreso de las identificaciones para los votantes Pese a que los casos de fraude electoral son extremadamente raros en Carolina del Norte, muchos políticos tratan de vender la idea de que miles de personas votan de manera ilegal, por supuesto, sin presentar evidencia. Esto motivó a que algunos legisladores propongan exigir un documento de identificación a los votantes para que ejerzan su derecho.

¿Cuál es el problema con el presentar una identificación? Históricamente este tipo de requisitos se han dado para restringir el acceso al voto a minorías y a gente pobre.

Hoy, la nueva corte ratificó la obligación de presentar una identificación con foto al momento de votar, medida que la anterior Corte Suprema había anulado por considerar que se basaba en prejuicios raciales.

No importa de qué partido político venga, cuando un grupo de poder depende de la manipulación y el oportunismo para lograr sus objetivos, están atacando descaradamente nuestra democracia.

IDs to Vote and Gerrymandering, How Do They Affect the Elections?

Sadly, some politicians who cannot get what they want through democracy look for ways to manipulate the system in their favor, carrying out shameless maneuvers overflowing with ambition but lacking in morality. This happened at the end of April when the new North Carolina Supreme Court dealt two treacherous blows to our democracy.

The recently inaugurated state Supreme Court, now with a conservative majority, made two decisions that will affect the way elections are conducted in North Carolina. In effect, it approved gerrymandering, and it upheld the requirement of presenting a photo ID when voting.

Partisan gerrymandering of electoral districts

On April 28, the state’s highest court threw out a previous ruling that had declared the gerrymandered redistricting maps illegal. To better understand this ruling, let’s look at a little history.

Electoral districts are geographic areas that an elected position covers, for example, representatives in the state General Assembly. Each district is assigned different postal addresses. This often determines the direction of voting in these districts since many tend to cluster together members of one or more communities.

In 2016, Republican legislators redrew districts to favor their party’s candidates. They used maps that defied all geographic logic and that divided urban centers (with a Democratic leaning) so that they would have less weight when electing representatives.

This brash partisan manipulation generated various criticisms. For example, professor Andrew Reynolds, a member of the Electoral Integrity Project, an initiative at the University of Sydney and Harvard Universities that seeks to quantify election

Diego Barahona A.

integrity in 164 countries, noted that North Carolina’s electoral integrity score was as low as the scores from Cuba, Indonesia, and Sierra Leone.

It wasn’t long before there were lawsuits challenging the electoral maps. A court ordered the maps to be redrawn, but the new maps had the same problems. On September 3, 2019, a panel of judges ruled that the new state legislative maps were severely gerrymandered to benefit Republican candidates, in violation of the state Constitution, and that they must once again be redrawn.

The recent ruling by the new state Supreme Court cancels all the previous process and, effectively means that state legislators will have greater leeway in drawing the boundaries of General Assembly districts over the next decade.

The Return of Voter IDs

Although cases of voter fraud are extremely rare in North Carolina, many politicians try to sell the idea that thousands of people vote illegally-- of course, without presenting evidence. This motivated some legislators to propose requiring voters to present an identification document at the polls.

What is the problem with presenting identification?

Historically, this type of requirement has been put in place to restrict voting access for minorities and poor people.

Today, the new court upheld the requirement to present a photo ID when voting, a measure that the previous Supreme Court had annulled on the grounds that it was based on racial prejudice.

No matter what political party you come from, when a group in power relies on manipulation and opportunism to achieve their goals, they are brazenly attacking our democracy.