Legal Definitions - vote dilution

Vote dilution occurs when an electoral system or practice diminishes the ability of a specific group of voters, often a racial or ethnic minority, to elect their preferred candidates or to influence the outcome of an election. It does not necessarily prevent people from casting a ballot, but rather makes their votes less effective or impactful.

Here are some examples illustrating vote dilution:

• Example 1: Gerrymandering (Cracking)

  Imagine a state where a particular ethnic minority group makes up a substantial portion of the population, concentrated in a specific geographic region. When new legislative districts are drawn, the mapmakers intentionally divide this minority community into several different districts. In each of these newly drawn districts, the minority group's population is now too small to form a majority or even a significant plurality, making it nearly impossible for them to elect a candidate who represents their interests. Their collective voting power, which could have been decisive in one or two districts, is "cracked" and spread out, effectively diluting their ability to influence any single election.

• Example 2: At-Large Elections in a Multi-Member District

  Consider a city that elects its entire city council through an "at-large" system, meaning all voters in the city vote for all council seats. If a specific neighborhood within this city has a significant population of a particular demographic group (e.g., recent immigrants) that constitutes 25% of the total city population, they might be able to elect one or two representatives if the city were divided into single-member districts. However, in an at-large system, if the majority of voters consistently vote as a bloc for candidates not preferred by the immigrant community, the immigrant group's 25% of the vote might never be enough to elect any of their preferred candidates across all the seats. Their voting strength is diluted because they are consistently outvoted by the larger majority across the entire city, preventing them from securing any representation proportional to their numbers.