Obama: The gerrymandering jumble

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 10:12 a.m. CST

When Sen. Barack Obama arrived at The Brookings Institution this morning to deliver a speech on election reform, he seem surprised that virtually every chair in the 100-seat auditorium had been filled and at least a dozen more people were standing in the back.

"I was thinking that at 9 in the morning, I would have to do something to stir up a crowd," Obama said, "so I was going to invite John McCain to come with me to stir up a little excitement!"

The audience, of course, knew that he was referring to an ongoing spat between the senators from Arizona and Illinois over the thorny issue of ethics and lobbying reform. But surely that topic has been exhausted - at least until McCain and Obama come together this afternoon to testify on the matter at the Senate Rules Committee.

Obama had been invited to headline a conference on election reform at Brookings, a venerable Washington think tank. While he said there were numerous improvements that could be made to the mechanics of elections, he conceded it was a topic that failed to draw the attention it deserved.

"Election reform," he said, "is one where Americans have the tendency to go from shocked to trance."

But beyond the nuts and bolts of how ballots are cast and counted, Obama said a larger problem comes from the intense gerrymandering that both parties have employed. The result: People know that their votes may, theoretically, not count.

"In too many districts today, people's votes probably won't make a difference," Obama said. "As a consequence of the gerrymandering of redistricting, people aren't being illogical when they stay home because the outcome is a foregone conclusion."

Then, he added: "We now have a system where too often, representatives are selecting their voters instead of voters selecting their representatives. That is a situation that we should not accept."

But realistically, he conceded that neither Democrats nor Republicans are likely inclined to change the system anytime soon. Both sides, he said, instead try to seize the tactical advantages that come with serving in the majority.

"The idea of redistricting is a complicated problem," Obama said, noting that he is looking to the Supreme Court to give guidance in a Texas redistricting case it is considering. "But I cannot imagine any scenario where Congress would draw new districts, thereby rendering half of the seats competitive."