Computerized Voter Abuse

Rep. Grace Flores Napolitano of Norwalk never met Gov. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, but his influence has helped determine her political life.

Gerry, a founding father of the United States, owes his fame to the derisive word “gerrymander.” He was governor in 1812 when one party in the Massachusetts Legislature drafted a contorted legislative district plan drawn specifically to elect that party’s representative. The famed painter Gilbert Stuart looked at the elongated creature, added a sinister head, wings and clawed feet and told the editor of a Massachusetts newspaper, “That will do for a salamander!” The editor, apparently not a Gerry fan, is said to have retorted, “Gerrymander!”

Thus was born the process by which the party in control of a legislature abuses its constitutional power to redraw district lines following each federal census, in an effort to maximize the number of seats it is likely to win in subsequent elections. The potential for abuse -- or its sophistication, rather -- was much enhanced with the marriage of many-gigabyte computers and population data after the 2000 census.

The 19th century Massachusetts lawmakers would have looked in awe at California’s 38th Congressional District, Napolitano’s seat. It is so full of tangles and sharp turns it represents nothing so simple as a salamander.

On the western end, it stretches from below Norwalk on the south to Montebello, Pico Rivera and part of East Los Angeles. It shoots eastward through the cities of Industry, La Puente, Pomona, a touch of Whittier and, by a thread, out to the San Bernardino County line to connect heavily Latino centers of population. It assures not just that a Democrat will win, but a Latino Democrat. It also deprives Latino voters of a stronger voice in nearby areas. Courts frown on districts built to dilute minority voting power, either by dispersing minority voters too widely or by going too far in concentrating them in a single district.

The 38th is not a rarity in California. Scores of other districts make little sense beyond their goal of guaranteeing “safe” seats for one party or the other.

Of the 640,000 residents counted in the 2000 census in Napolitano’s district, 71% are Latino. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 57% to 23%. Republicans didn’t even have a candidate in the 2004 general election.

The district was also so jumbled by the California Legislature after the census that nearly half the voters were new to Napolitano, who was first elected in 1998. Before 2001, her old 34th District covered some of the same territory but was much more compact, with its eastern boundary stopping short of West Covina, Industry and Whittier. It too was Latino, but far less than now.

The two major parties made a cynical pact in 2001. Democrats wanted to solidify control in the state Assembly and Senate, and in the state’s 53-member delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans, worried about losing even more races in a state trending Democratic, went along with drawing crooked lines aimed at perpetuating the status quo. National Republican leaders were particularly worried that further GOP erosion in the state could threaten the party’s control of the House of Representatives.

As a result of the new lines, not a single seat turned over in the 2004 elections in the House delegation, state Assembly or Senate. Of 153 offices, not one went to the other party, a first in modern California history.

A system so calculated to protect politicians and deprive voters of choice is both corrupt and anti-democratic. It also distorts the politicians it protects, forcing them to appeal in the primary election to loyal hard-liners of their party rather than the possibly undecided and party-switching center.

We have long favored a change in how districts are drawn, and this year Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is rightly making this an issue. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, the Assembly Republican leader, is the author of a Schwarzenegger-favored measure that would turn the job of redistricting over to an independent commission of retired judges.

Democratic legislative leaders and many Republicans oppose the governor’s plan, preferring to keep for themselves the power to choose their own constituents. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) declared the McCarthy proposal and its Senate companion dead on arrival. Assembly leader Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) called for “a commission ... to study the design of the districts and make recommendations.” If Democratic leaders in Sacramento won’t negotiate fairly, Schwarzenegger will allow voters to settle the matter at the polls.

Even some Republican members of Congress in Washington are urging Schwarzenegger to drop the subject or at least leave out the U.S. House seats until after the next census. So far, he has shown no inclination to do so, and we urge him to stay his course. Lawmakers have forfeited their right to draw those crooked lines.