muon2
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« on: January 20, 2015, 09:05:56 AM » |
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There are generally two categories of circumstances where this happens.
One is where the districts are malapportioned so that there are more voters per seat in the jurisdictions favoring the popular vote winner. It can be due to constitutional apportionments, so it becomes a structural feature of that legislature. It can also be due to party strategies in multimember districts. This tends to be the cause of a spurious majority in PR-based elections. Its occurrence in US districts before 1960 gave rise to the one-man-one-vote decisions.
The other one is where the partisan voters of one party are inefficiently distributed. It can be a natural geographic occurrence, such as when one party has a primarily urban (or rural) base. It can also be the result of successful gerrymandering to pack one party's base into as few districts as possible. This tends to be the cause in FPTP-based elections. OH in 2012 is a good example of both gerrymandering and natural inefficiency combining to give the Pubs 12 of 16 House seats as Obama won the state overall.
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