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NY Times Editorial: That?s Two for Me

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

November 12, 2008 Editorial That?s Two for Me We?ve all heard of close elections. But consider the strange (and outrageous) case of the 2006 City Council election in Anamosa, Iowa. According to census figures, Anamosa?s Ward 2 has nearly 1,400 residents, about the same as the town?s other three wards. The problem is that 1,300 of the ward?s ?residents? are inmates of the Anamosa State Penitentiary. Minus the prisoners, Ward 2 has only 58 actual residents. A councilman won his election to represent the ward with two write-in votes: one from his wife and one from a neighbor. While Anamosa?s case is extreme, the phenomenon is not. It is called prison-based gerrymandering when politicians draw legislative districts around prisons and count inmates ? who are denied the vote in all but two states ? as residents...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on November 12, 2008 (boomark / email).