Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Field Note
“As I drove along a main road through
a Honolulu suburb I noticed that
numerous houses had the Hawai'i
State fl ag fl ying upside down. I
knocked on the door of this house
and asked the homeowner why he
was trea t ing the State fl ag this way.
He invited me in and we talked for
more than an hour. 'This is 1993,' he
said, 'and we native Hawai'ians are
letting the State government and the
country know that we haven't for-
gotten the annexation by the United
States of our kingdom. I don't accept
it, and we want our territory to plant
our fl ag and keep the traditions alive.
Why don't you drive past the royal
palace, and you'll see that we mean it.'
He was right. The Iolani Palace, where
the Hawai'ians ' last monarch, Queen
Liliuokalani , reigned until she was
deposed by a group of American busi-
nessmen in 1893, was draped in black
for all of Honolulu to see. Here was devolutionary stress on American soil.”
Figure 8.16
Honolulu, Hawai'i.
© H. J. de Blij.
new levels. Political geographers study church affi liation,
income level, ethnic background, education attainment,
and numerous other social and economic factors to gain
an understanding of why voters in a certain region might
have voted the way they did.
The domain in which electoral geographers can have
the most concrete infl uence is in the drawing of electoral
districts. In a democracy with representatives elected by dis-
trict, spatial organization of the districts determines whose
voice is heard in a given place—with impacts on who is
elected. A voter's most direct contact with government is at
the local level. The United States Constitution establishes
a system of
territorial representation.
In the
Senate, each
major territorial unit (State) gets two representatives, and
in the House of Representatives, members are elected from
territorially defi ned districts based on population.
The Constitution requires a census every ten years
in order to enumerate the population and reapportion
the representatives accordingly.
Reapportionment
is the
process by which districts are moved according to popu-
lation shifts, so that each district encompasses approxi-
mately the same number of people. For example, after
the 2010 census, several States in the Rust Belt, including
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan lost representatives
and the Sun Belt States of Georgia, South Carolina, and
Florida along with the southwestern States of Arizona,
Nevada, and Utah gained representatives.
In the United States, once reapportionment is
complete, individual States go through the process of
redistricting, each following its own system. The crite-
ria involved in redistricting are numerous, but the most
important is equal representation, achieved by ensuring
that districts have approximately the same populations. In
addition, the Supreme Court prefers compact and con-
tiguous districts that keep political units (such as counties)
intact. Finally, the courts have repeatedly called for repre-
sentational equality of racial and linguistic minorities.
Even after the civil rights movement of the 1950s
and 1960s in the United States, minorities were refused
voting rights in a multitude of districts and States around
the country. County registrars would close their doors
when African Americans came to register to vote, and
intimidation kept many away from voting at the polls.
Even in places where minorities were allowed to register
and vote, the parties drawing the voting districts or choos-
ing the electoral system would make it nearly impossible
