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Rick Ober ’55 Gives Talk on Democracy and Election Reform

Rick Ober’55 shared his insights on the electoral process on October 18 with the alumni community. As a legal analyst for the Princeton Gerrymandering Project and Innovation Lab, he’s co-authored multiple articles and is well-versed in the subject.
Rick focused his conversation on three main areas: 1) open primaries and ranked-choice voting; 2) electoral college; and 3) redistricting and gerrymandering.
 
“There have been two eras when the winner of the popular vote did not win the election. The first major one was the gilded age, which was very similar to today. There was inequality, political polarization, social dislocation, cultural narcissism, unprecedented technological advances – the telegraph and telephone, and general wellbeing. And that’s sort of where we are today. Now the internet is the technological disruption with increasing inequality and partisanship.”
 
Rick also related the U.K. origins of gerrymandering, having derived from pocket boroughs / rotten boroughs, and which has subsequently evolved into five major kinds of gerrymandering. The first three, racial, ethnic, and religious gerrymandering, are prohibited in the U.S. by federal law. In contrast, incumbent gerrymandering is prohibited in 17 states and is permitted in 12 and partisan gerrymandering permitted in six states and prohibited in 21.
 
Gerrymandering can potentially be positive in allowing communities of interest to be represented. Rick cited a Hopi reservation in northeastern Arizona connected via the Colorado River down to Phoenix. This unusual configuration enables the Hopi to have their district separate from the larger Navajo nation surrounding them. 
 
To learn more and hear Rick’s great talk, you can watch the recording here.
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