Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is the practice of attempting to interfere with the outcome of election results in a democracy based upon constituencies. In order to influence the result, the boundaries of a constituency might be changed in order to eliminate some area with a high concentration of people who vote for a certain political party.

Another method is to attempt to move the population within the existing boundaries. This occurred in Westminster?, in the United Kingdom. The local government was controlled by the Conservative party, and the leader of the council, with others conspired to only offer state funded housing to people who were thought to vote Conservative. The council leader was [Dame Shirley Porter]?, who lost in court, and was forced to pay millions of pounds in punitive damages. Recently (December 2001), an appeal court has ordered that she will remain liable for the full amount of the damages.