What does representative democracy look like today? What does the 2010 Census mean for your district? What is Gerrymandering?
DL21C is excited to welcome NYS Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, director Jeff Reichert and Common Cause’s Executive Director, Susan Lerner, as we screen a critically acclaimed, Tribeca Film Festival award winning film, about one of the hottest political issues in New York and across the nation.
Doors open at 6:30pm
Movie screening begins at 7pm
Discussion with Assemblyman Jeffries, Susan Lerner and Jeff Reichert following the screening at approximately 8:15pm
Free for Members; $7/non-members
Beer, Wine & Spirits specials - only $5
Join us for this informative and exciting evening and don’t miss an opportunity to see one of the hottest new political documentaries around!!
Co-hosted with Common Cause NY
To read more about the film: http://www.gerrymanderingmovie.com/
To learn more about Common Cause: http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4847595
To learn more about Assemblyman Jeffries: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=057&sh=bio
About Gerrymandering:
Following the 2010 Census, the states will go through a process of redistricting based on population which will result in reapportionment, or a new determination of how many Congressional seats each district received.
Not only is this an important political topic across the country, but it couldn’t be more timely here in New York State where a bill to end prison-based gerrymandering, the practice of counting prison inmates in the district where the prison is located, is presently before the NYS Assembly.
June 27 New York Times Op-ed on prison gerrymandering:
Most states, including New York, have longstanding laws saying that a prison is not a legal residence. But that hasn’t stopped prison gerrymandering — the cynical and unfair practice under which inmates are counted as “residents” as a way of padding populations that are too small to pass muster under federal election law.
In addition to verging on fraud, the tactic inflates the clout of underpopulated districts where prisons are most often built and siphons off power from more populated districts where the inmates actually live.
When the prison population was small, this was easy to ignore. With more than a million people nationally now behind bars, the tactic of drawing districts around prisons must finally be recognized for what it is: a way of hijacking power from one part of the state to another.
The New York State Legislature can stand up for electoral fairness this week by passing legislation that requires prison inmates to be counted at their home addresses. There is a great deal of momentum behind the Assembly’s bill. The Senate version is meeting resistance from upstate lawmakers. The rest of the Senate needs to push back, and both houses need to send this bill on to the governor for signing.
Other states have figured this out. Earlier this year, the Maryland Legislature passed a law requiring inmates to be counted at home — after learning that prisoners made up an astonishing 64 percent of the population of one county commission district. Delaware and several other states are moving toward similar laws.
Local officials in New York concluded years ago that it was unfair to award county legislative seats to thinly populated areas simply because they had giant prisons. As a result, a majority of the counties with big prisons now subtract inmates from the population count when drawing districts. It is time for Albany to follow and end this practice once and for all.