John B. Anderson, former Congressman, former independent presidential candidate, current chairman, FairVote--The Center for Voting and Democracy:

“It’s been many years since the Supreme Court said political gerrymandering was a justiciable issue, and in the very last, most recent term of the court, they came to grips with political gerrymandering again, but they couldn’t yet decide on a formula they could use to adjudicate the differences in that case. It occurs to me that it is not a job for the court. This is not an instance where we ought to abdicate to the judiciary.

“This is a job that Congress alone can do properly, should take up. If we want to export democracy, we had better come up with some better statistics about how democracy works and how competitive it is and how it really speaks for the people and not simply for political parties or their sponsors. This is an important piece of legislation, and I am delighted that you have made it bipartisan.”

Back