Gerrymandering
When redistricting goes wrong, the gerrymandering ‘monster’ can come out.
In our last blog post we talked about redistricting. But what is gerrymandering?
It is a deliberate drawing of electoral districts to give an advantage to one political candidate or party, to influence who gets elected and who does not, and thereby to further or hinder the chances of particular public policies being adopted or defeated.
This practice can take place at all levels of government from state legislatures to city and county governing bodies and school boards. By giving governing parties the ability to draw their own maps, many will try to keep themselves in power by skewing the political map in their favor.
This skewing is done through the processes of cracking and packing.
Cracking is the practice of diluting the voting power of certain communities by spreading them among several districts. This ensures that their power is diminished and the community cannot elect a candidate of their choice between all the districts they are split across. The opposite of cracking is packing. Packing is the process of concentrating the voting power of a community by putting them all in a single district. This wastes their voting power by making the favored candidate win in that district by an overwhelming margin.
Both of these practices threaten the democratic process.
The best way to achieve accurate representation is a method right in the middle between the act of packing and cracking. It might seem like a simple process of drawing lines, but redistricting is much more than that. Gerrymandering at best disrupts the fair electoral process and at worst completely prevents it.
Michael P. McDonald & Micah Altman, The Public Mapping Project 1-16 (2018).
Gerrymandering, explained, The Washington Post, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGLRJ12uqmk.
Winburn, Jonathan. The Realities of Redistricting: Following the Rules and Limiting Gerrymandering in State Legislative Redistricting. Lexington Books, 2008.
Tarter, Brent. Gerrymanders: How Redistricting Has Protected Slavery, White Supremacy, and Partisan Minorities in Virginia. University of Virginia Press, 2019.