By Tim Wood
I was inspired by my readings from both Carol Lucas (07/30/25) and Frank Wainwright (08/13/25) concerning the problems of U.S. gerrymandering — (past to present, any and all, including state and local districts) — to write this opinion piece considering the present state of our own U.S. voting system.
Some folks may not believe that I actually do think about solutions to our democracy’s problems, just not complaining about them.
To set the record straight, gerrymandering started as far back as 1788 when Anti-Federalists attempted to gerrymander James Madison out of his congressional seat. The name itself was established from Elbridge Gerry (a Democratic-Republican and Founding Father) in 1812; He had signed (as Massachusetts governor) a redistricting bill that opponents thought was a partisan manipulation of district lines favoring his party over the Federalists, which it was.
And let me clearly vow at this time: Any and all gerrymandering is wrong and simply increases our partisan divide as we are now witnessing. Both gerrymandering and the electoral college no longer afford, (in my uncompromising opinion), any benefits to a society that wishes to be a proper, majority rule society; As I sincerely hope and pray we will continue to be and grow back into. I firmly believe that both gerrymandering and the Electoral Collage, in today’s world, augment partisanship.
Gerrymandering is not written into our constitution, the electoral college process is (Article II, Section 1), but I advocate that both should end completely and as soon as possible.
The Apportionment Act of 1842 mandated the use of single-member districts for states with multiple House seats; (Our states before this were using different forms of the same principle). The Electoral College was established during the 1787 Constitutional Convention as a compromise between delegates that were split between those wanting the Congress (alone) to vote for a president and vice-president as opposed to those delegates that wished them elected by the population with the popular, majority rule. In our present society, it is a mean, bitter pill to swallow a president and vice-president who won office from a manipulated Electoral College but who lost in the popular vote. Politicians desire the popular vote but gladly embrace the overrule from the Electoral College.
Establishing state districts was necessary as a means to even out the population (in states) with regard to a fixed number of members (435) in the House of Representatives. A simplification is that rural areas will be bigger districts than districts in densely populated (urban) areas … it is simply dividing “head counts” equally for voting in our representatives.
To assure each State’s (political) majority winners in any and all elections. If we, as a country, got back to the basics of this concept it could very well end this growing population/partisan divide: A direct result from both gerrymandering and corruptions of the Electoral College.
I believe in a democratic, majority rule system of government, elected within a system devoid of gerrymandering and the Electoral College. This is the first step into purifying our voting system … back to basics.
The next necessary steps for a pure majority rule society would be to 1) Establish term limits for all governmental positions, both state and federal; 2) Enforce limits on time and money now being used in campaigns; and 3) Modify our party system to have people proclaim their ideologies into our 10-year census. IE: Ultra-Conservative (UC); Basic Conservative (BC); Basic Liberal (BL); Ultra-Liberal (UL). Four parties, if you will. I think this would force coalitions and make it easier to understand in which direction our citizen majorities are evolving.
As a small example, wouldn’t you love to be able to vote for a set of term limits for all Federal appointed judges, especially SCOTUS? Imagine that! True majority rule. The best system for governmental/cultural rule, ever
Tim and Kristy Wood moved to Beaufort in 1974. He worked as a carpenter in both restoration and new home construction, as well as operating a shop specializing in custom woodwork, Wood on Wood Specs. He is semi-retired, involved with fine woodworking and formerly sat on the City of Beaufort Zoning Board of Appeals.
