Electoral Math in Missouri- Kansas City Star 2/27/22 LTE by Mary Lindsay
Pat Goodwin - Vote411 | Published on 2/27/2022
Republicans hold a supermajority of seats in the Missouri’s House and Senate, plus the governor’s mansion and all but one statewide office—obviously Missouri is an extremely Republican state. Right!?
Actually Missouri voters are fairly close to the middle.
The fact is Missourians vote roughly 54% for Republicans and 46% for Democrats according to Harvard Dataverse’s Voting and Election Science Team. For redistricting purposes, the Missouri Constitution requires the use of voting data, which averages the statewide races for Governor, US Senator, and President in the last three general elections.
Currently, the state Senate Republicans are arguing among themselves over redistricting Missouri’s Congressional districts: Shall they give Democrats one or two of the eight seats?
Six seats equals 75% of the eight. Seven seats would equal 87%. Doing the math, 54%-46% (the statewide voting split) should give Republicans a 5-3 split of state’s seats in Congress.
Meanwhile, a panel of state judges is drawing the new state Senate districts. I hope the new map will be more representative of Missouri’s actual voting pattern than is the current 70% of state Senate seats held by Republicans.
Clearly 70%, 75% and 87% all far exceed Republicans’ 54% split in statewide elections.
Is Gerrymandering the difference?