A huge issue for the Civic League for New Castle County this year will be advocating for independent and fair redistricting. With the 2010 census, redistricting will be required, and we have a long history of impropriety in the way districts are drawn in Delaware. Gerrymandering clearly disenfranchises Delaware votes, and needs to be stopped. We have been involved in legal fights for this in the past (see CLNCC Oct. 2004 newsletter), and should prepare for another potential legal battle if an independent redistricting law is not passed.
This movie may give some insights and ideas about how bad the problem is across the country as well. More importantly, it may give us all a better understanding of what is at stake, and why we need to step up our efforts to stop combat it.
Movie, Gerrymandering 2010
Theater N at Nemours
1007 Orange St.
Wilmington, De.
0ctober 12, 2010
7;30 P.M.
One time showing
81 minutes
$7.00, $5.00 seniors
A wake-up-call documentary that exposes the hidden history of our country's redistricting wars, mapping battles that take place out of public scrutiny but that shape the electoral landscape of American politics for decades at time, posing a threat not just to democrats and republicans, but democracy as a whole.
Documentary filmmaker Jeff Reichert ponders the troubling prospect that elections in America are decided before the first vote is ever cast by examining how the framework of democracy provides politicians with an entirely legal means of controlling electoral outcomes. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of "Gerrymandering" reads: "to divide a territorial unit into election districts to give one political party an electoral majority in a large number of districts while concentrating the voting strength of the opposition in as few districts as possible." As the debate surrounding the reliability of the electoral system rages, the question of how to ensure that the system is more accurate and accountable comes up time and again. Can that broken system ever be fixed? By posing that question, among many others, to governors, state representatives, Supreme Court justices, political strategists, party chairmen, scholars, and journalists, Reichert proposes that the fundamental democratic premise that voters actually choose their elected representative may be a falsehood implemented to create the illusion of democracy.
Followed by a question and answer session by the Director and Producer previously filmed.
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