Future Hindsight

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Make Your Vote Pack a Punch: Sam Wang

February 29th, 2024

“Gerrymandering is indeed an offense against democracy.”

Sam Wang is the Director of the Electoral Innovation Lab and a professor of neuroscience at Princeton University. We discuss how we can better understand the current state of district maps across the US, and how they can be made more fair and representative of their constituents.

Gerrymandering is not only unfair but also anti-democratic. It favors one party over another, effectively shutting out the possibility of accurate representation in a legislative body. The current electoral system forces voters into opposite camps and then rewards them for doing so. For example, primary elections reward a partisan loyalist who is unlikely to represent the views of the majority of voters. But, local and state elections are a hope for the future because voters are less polarized.

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Credits:

Host: Mila Atmos 

Guest: Sam Wang

Executive Producer: Mila Atmos

Producer: Zack Travis