This continually astounds me about the U.S. electoral system: you let the people with a vested interest design the electoral districts that get them elected. Talk about putting the fox in charge...
It's a practice made possible by one of the more peculiar quirks of the US electoral system: politicians have traditionally been responsible for designing the boundaries of congressional seats, rather than an independent authority like the Australian Electoral Commission.
This continually astounds me about the U.S. electoral system: you let the people with a vested interest design the electoral districts that get them elected. Talk about putting the fox in charge of the henhouse!
Our Australian Electoral Commission does its job of running elections effectively, efficiently - and, most importantly, independently. It's a branch of the public service that draws up electorate maps, it creates the ballot papers, it runs the elections, it counts the votes, and it declares the winners. No fuss, no muss. Everyone trusts it because it has never given anyone any reason to suspect it of being anything other than trustworthy.
This continually astounds me about the U.S. electoral system: you let the people with a vested interest design the electoral districts that get them elected. Talk about putting the fox in charge of the henhouse!
Our Australian Electoral Commission does its job of running elections effectively, efficiently - and, most importantly, independently. It's a branch of the public service that draws up electorate maps, it creates the ballot papers, it runs the elections, it counts the votes, and it declares the winners. No fuss, no muss. Everyone trusts it because it has never given anyone any reason to suspect it of being anything other than trustworthy.