Gerrymandering: An Explainer
What is gerrymandering?
Gerrymandering occurs when district lines are redrawn, often in distorted, complex shapes, in an attempt to manipulate election results and disenfranchise voters. Gerrymandering gets its name from Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry, who, in 1812, signed a bill creating a district that looked like a salamander — mocked as a “Gerry-mander”.
What does the Census have to do with gerrymandering?
Every 10 years the United States does a population count, called the Census. The Census is used to determine political representation and allocate federal funding. Each state also uses Census data to determine how to divide its population into equal Congressional districts. This is intended to make sure that everyone’s vote has equal weight in electing a representative to Congress — but when districts are gerrymandered, that’s no longer the case.
Types of Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering comes in many different forms, the most notable of which are racial and partisan gerrymandering. In racial gerrymandering, districts are drawn to dilute — or, in some cases, amplify — the representation of racial groups. For the most part, the Supreme Court has taken a hard stance against racial gerrymandering.
Partisan gerrymandering, on the other hand, is used by both Democrats and Republicans to dilute the amount of representation the opposing party can gain or amplify their own representation.
There are two main methods to gerrymandering — “packing” and “cracking.” When a gerrymandered district is “packed” in a partisan way, people of Party A are drawn into one district, while Party B supporters are spread across many districts. Even though Party A will likely win their district, they’ll only win one district, while Party B will likely win the rest and have a majority. “Cracking,” on the other hand, refers to splitting people up so that their candidate is unlikely to get a majority in any district.
Why doesn’t somebody fix gerrymanders?
The U.S. Department of Justice used to review how districts were drawn, and sometimes they required states to redo unfair districts. However, the Supreme Court recently ruled the Justice Department doesn’t have to review districts anymore, and if districts are drawn based on politics, Congress or the states themselves have to fix that. But the states created the problem, and some members of Congress were elected from gerrymandered districts, so we can’t rely on those groups to make the process more fair.
So what do we do?
First, answer the Census. We need to make sure our communities are accurately counted!
Next, hold your state legislators accountable when new district lines are drawn in 2020. Let them know you want fair representation for everyone.
And of course, make sure you’re registered to vote. Even in gerrymandered districts, it’s possible to overcome the political edge one party may have if enough people register, make sure their friends are registered, and GO VOTE!
