One Person, One Vote

January 1, 2022

Following the more academic Drawing the Lines (Cornell Univ., 2017), University of North Florida associate professor Seabrook speaks to a wide audience as he contextualizes gerrymandering. He opens by revealing Revolutionary-era bend-the-vote efforts by Patrick Henry, James Madison, and Elbridge Gerry, the Massachusetts governor who gave the practice its name, then looks at the Supreme Court's challenge to gerrymandering in the 20th-century and the Republicans' current REDMAP efforts to suppress the vote.

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April 4, 2022
Political scientist Seabrook (Drawing the Lines) delivers a sweeping study of gerrymandering, the process of manipulating the boundaries of political districts to ensure an election’s outcome. Noting that Patrick Henry attempted to prevent his nemesis, James Madison, from serving in the first Congress by influencing the Virginia state assembly’s districting plan, Seabrook shows that the “partisan manipulation” of electoral maps began well before the 1830s, when a salamander-shaped district drawn by Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry’s Democratic-Republican Party was nicknamed the “Gerrymander.” In the first half of the 20th century, the refusal of state officials to redraw district lines in response to demographic shifts—known as the “creeping gerrymander”—sparked public outrage and led to a series of 1960s Supreme Court rulings establishing that citizens are entitled to periodic redistricting to ensure that the power of their vote was not diluted. These rulings—though well-intentioned—created the conditions by which Democrats placed a stranglehold on California politics in the 1980s and Republican operatives consolidated power in North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other states in the 2010s. As a remedy, Seabrook urges readers to pressure their state legislatures to establish independent commissions and other nonpartisan redistricting procedures. Dense yet entertaining, this comprehensive survey is a worthy introduction to a high-stakes political issue.

April 15, 2022
A study of the practice of shaping electoral districts to ensure electoral victory. How did Scott Walker, who lost the popular vote for governor of Wisconsin in 2018 by some 30,000 votes, still carry nearly two-thirds of the state's assembly and senate districts? The answer is simple: gerrymandering--and, as political scientist Seabrook observes, "one of the most egregious instances of gerrymandering in American history." He adds that gerrymandering is a fundamentally undemocratic practice that privileges some votes over others, especially the moneyed, well-connected, White, and conservative. Seabrook traces the history of gerrymandering beyond its supposedly American origins to the English tradition of "rotten boroughs," dating to the 13th century, with small numbers of voters attaining electoral power out of proportion to their numbers and members of Parliament propped up by corrupt measures. Things haven't changed much over time. As Seabrook notes, the 19th century was the heyday of gerrymandering as practiced by nearly every party, so that in one Ohio election, as a contemporary observed, if the Whigs won the state by 10,000 votes, they would still earn only seven congressional representatives while their opponents would have twice as many with the same count. Seabrook shows how gerrymandering has been practiced by both major parties in recent years, with procedural road maps now followed by the GOP often laid out by their Democratic predecessors. Led by the GOP, redistricting is ongoing across the country today, largely with an eye to being sure that districts are "safe"--read: rotten--and, through disenfranchisement measures, not susceptible to being turned by unwanted minorities. In a concluding call to action, the author writes: "How much do you really know about redistricting in your state? If the answer is not much, well, that's what the career politicians already huddling behind the scenes with teams of redistricting professionals, attorneys, political scientists, and strategists are hoping for. Democracy dies in darkness." Valuable reading for voting rights advocates.

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April 15, 2022
Seabrook, a professor of political science and public administration at the University of North Florida and an expert on election law, gives readers an illuminating look into the history of gerrymandering. Although the term has varying definitions, it is, broadly speaking, "a concerted effort to make the votes of certain groups of people matter more than the votes of others." Beginning with examples of gerrymandering in the Middle Ages, Seabrook moves quickly to the American colonies, profiling George Burrington, governor of the province of North Carolina. His ostentatious personality and equally brash election meddling is an early example of disturbing practices that continue to this day. Originating from the actions of Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry, the word gerrymandering is now commonly used in conjunction with redistricting litigation, district line redrawing, and continual failures of the court systems to address brazen injustices, including voter disenfranchisement, that are baked into efforts to win at all costs. With elections on the horizon, One Person One Vote is a timely and trustworthy review of legislative manipulations that reinforce entrenched powers that be and further undermine disadvantaged constituencies.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from May 1, 2022

Seabrook's (Drawing the Lines: Constraints on Gerrymandering in US Politics) excellent and cogent account of election boundary manipulation proves that political power knows few bounds and explains gerrymandering's history and effects and ways to combat it. When Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry wanted to hold onto power in 1812, he created a misshapen senate district whose residents he believed would elect him. The local newspaper, suspecting nefarious intent, published an image of the district as a salamander; the infamous "gerrymander" was born. But Gerry's efforts were not the first of their kind; Seabrook finds similar manipulations in England's rotten boroughs and describes how the Founding Fathers themselves were not averse to some boundary manipulation. Describing various types of gerrymander, including New York's notorious "handshake deal" and Thomas Hofeller's secretive Republican REDMAP plan, Seabrook also discusses the restrained response of the Supreme Court and its ultimate refusal to become involved in the "political thicket." Seabrook concludes that power lies with the people and explains how some states, led by California, are creating independent election district commissions to defeat political machinations. VERDICT A timely and powerful book that should be read by everyone interested in preserving American democracy.--Penelope J.M. Klein

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.