Gerrymandered voting districts are a distortion of democracy

Last week, a struggle played out in the state Capitol between the people fighting for the right to have their vote count and those in elected office who wish to skew voting districts to remain in power.

Gerrymandering voting districts in Pennsylvania has been the favored tactic of the party in power to ensure its candidates are elected and stay elected. This distortion of our democracy has led to polarized and gridlocked representatives. There is little incentive to reach out and form compromise solutions when the majority of your voting district is made up of single-minded constituents, and those of other party affiliations and other points of view are marginalized. Consequently, citizens not aligned with the representative lose their right for equal representation and to have their votes count.

If there is any doubt that money and power corrupt elections, you need to look no further than gerrymandering for the root of the problems we see today among our state and federal representatives.

The recent state Supreme Court order is only a temporary remedy to our gerrymandered districts. Come the 2020 census, districts will be redrawn with the same skewed process. That is why people from across the state rallied to urge their representatives to say “enough is enough” and to co-sign S.B. 22 and H.B. 563, formerly H.B. 722. These bills would establish a permanent remedy by creating a nonpolitical independent citizens commission to ensure a fair and equitable democratic process for redistricting now and in the future. R.F. BRECHT Franklin Park