The Republican Party has long made themselves Subject Matter Experts in the fine art of gerrymandering, especially in the red states where they hold governance sway like Texas, Alabama and even here in New Hampshire.

Gerrymandering is done by redrawing the maps of voting areas in state districts in such a way that the ruling political party’s area contains what polls show are enough sympathetic voters that they will win the election for that district (towns or cities). And the redrawn district with fewer voters allied with the ruling Party winds up with far less representation.

Simply making every district in a state virtually equal in population maps would alleviate this unfair practice and make for a more equitable voting sample for every city and town, but at least 21 states, including the Granite State, are currently running with a plethora of unfairly-drawn districts, resulting in many towns having little or no representation, and in New Hampshire’s case totally changing the makeup of our Executive Council.

Last Wednesday night the US House struck a much needed dagger into this nefarious practice, as well as other voter-suppression rules pushed by America’s GOP, by passing HR1, the For The People Act by a 220-210 vote. It was passed virtually entirely along party lines, as the last thing the Republicans want, with the huge and ugly shadow of the deposed Donald Trump still hanging over much of what they do nationally, is any semblance of fair state-level representation for our citizens save for their conservative adherents.

The For The People Act aims to give voters fair and equitable access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics by forcing candidates to reveal the names of their large donors (taking some pages from the CITIZEN’S UNITED movement), strengthen ethics rules for politicians, and implement other anti-corruption measures to fortify the accuracy of our elections. This is especially important now with the amazing amount of illegal attempts of post-election subterfuge that Trump and the national-level Republican Party kept lawmakers busy with for two months after last November’s Biden victory.

The bill would also allow convicted felons who have served their jail sentences to reacquire their right to vote. Ratification would also approve an automatic national voter registration system, and would eliminate Voter ID laws as long as the voter signed a sworn affidavit if unable to produce a driver’s license or other ID when voting. This last tenet is one that will probably be tweaked or eliminated before it has a chance in the Senate.

One would think that legislation like this that levels the playing field for BOTH political parties would be something that any honest politician or political group could get behind. But due to the fact that virtually all of America’s state gerrymandering is done by the Republican Party, every one of the racist and bigoted voter suppression laws against Black and other minority demographics is effected by the GOP in their red states, and because they receive more “dark money” than Democrats from rich donors and corporations who understandably wouldn’t want their names out there for the world to see, the GOP is lockstep against any fairness changes.

The minority vote, especially in our southern states, was hugely instrumental in Joe Biden’s presidential election win last November that eliminated the worst domestic president in our nation’s history, as well as evicted a genuine criminal element from the Oval Office. And the GOP in Washington, despite their very lives being threatened by thousands of Trump’s rabid crew on January 6 at the Capitol, have still “bought in” to their ugly mentality that dragged America to near-Fascist depths over Trump’s term, instead of attempting to carve out some positive stances after their four-year black eye that would be beneficial to their more rational non-Trump segment, as well as Independents and Democrats.

We can expect a Tong war over the bill in the Senate, as getting (at least) 10 Republican votes will be a difficult task. Another option would be to ram the legislation through with a simple majority after amending the Senate’s arcane and ridiculous filibuster rules, and using vice president Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote if the Democrats try to take that route. The fur should begin flying in a week or two, but all Americans who desire a level election field for everyone, no matter what state they reside in, should support this needed legislation.