How many times have you thought to yourself ... 50/50 nation? How can almost everybody I know be on the left side of the forward slash in "50/50"? Are they counting right?
Apparently they are not counting right, in one important way. Via TalkLeft, this story from the Christian Science Monitor.
But one important political effect of the forced relocation of millions of inmates has been largely overlooked: The dilution of the urban black vote to the benefit of rural white communities.
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because the Census Bureau counts prison inmates as residents of the legislative districts in which they're incarcerated, the relocation of inmates - who are not allowed to vote in 48 states - skews both the distribution of government funds and the apportionment of legislative representation.
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The distortion in representation caused by enumeration of prisoners tends to favor rural residents, whites, and Republicans, at the expense of urban residents, blacks, and Democrats.
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And it's uncomfortably reminiscent of the infamous "three-gifths compromise." Under that clause of the Constitutio, ... slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person - although, of course, they weren't allowed to vote.
The author, a fellow at Duke, gives a few hard numbers and they are depressing.
For example, in four state house districts in Connecticut, inmates make up more than 10 percent of the population. Each of these districts has low population and is disproportionately white - except, of course, for the inmate populations. And because of the presence of inmates, these districts effectively get about 10 percent more representation than they ought to.
If this isn't a violation of the 14th amendment, then the damn thing isn't worth the paper it's written on.