Gerrymandering – Explained
By
John C Abercrombie
We often hear the term gerrymandering in the news, but what is it and what and why it matters. The term is named after Elbridge Gerry a Vice President of the United States at the time of is death. Elbridge Gerry was a founding father, merchant, politician, and diplomat and the fifth vice president of the United States serving under President James Madison. He served from 1813 until his death in 1814. The practice of Gerrymandering is named after him.
Gerry was Governor of Massachusetts in 1812 when he signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area that was so weirdly shaped that it was compared to that of the mythological salamander. The term is considered negative and represents a way of corrupting the democratic process.
Gerrymandering is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent of creating undue advantage of a party, group, or socio-economic class.
Redistricting is a necessary practice since it follows changes in population. People move from one district to another. Since many political positions are population based, this is reasonable, however when it is done with the intent of maintaining power or denying power it is corrupt.
There are recognized as two parts, one being “cracking” or diluting the power of the opposing party’s supporters across many districts or “packing,” which is concentrating the opposing party’s voting power into one district to reduce their voting power in other districts. Often this is used as a way to protect incumbents, described as the politician picking their voters instead of the voters picking the politicians.
In most cases the goal of gerrymandering is to maximize the effect of supporters’ votes and minimize the effects of opponents’ votes.
We will look at some of the was gerrymandering works
- Cracking involves spreading voters of a particular type among many districts to deny a sufficient voting bloc in a particular district. Political parties in charge of redrawing district lines may create more Cracked districts as a means of retaining ad possibly even expanding their legislative power.
- Cracking allows a political part to maintain or gain, legislative control by ensuring that the opposing party’s voters are not the majority in specific districts.
- For example, the voters in a Black area could be split among several districts in each of which the majority of voters are White, on the presumption that the two groups would vote differently, and the White voters would be far more likely to get their way in the elections.
- While the above is a blatant example, there are examples of it being disguised by using terms like suburban and urban, especially when suburban represents Whites living in the suburbs with Blacks in the city or urban. Do not be fooled by this tactic. The tactics become more sophisticated, but it is the same trick.
- An example of this tactic in use. The voters in the Black area could be split into several districts having White majorities. This would prevent Black representation.
The other way Gerrymandering works is by Packing or concentrating many voters of one group into a single electoral district to reduce the influence in other districts. This concentrates voter of a group and is often used to create a majority-minority district.
- This tactic is often used in an attempt to prevent lawsuits. It is necessary to look at the end result of these tactics.
When the party controlling the districting process has a statewide majority, packing is usually not necessary to attain partisan advantage; the minority party can generally be “cracked” everywhere. Packing is therefore more likely to be used for partisan advantage when the party controlling the districting process has a statewide minority, because by forfeiting a few districts packed with the opposition, cracking can be used in forming the remaining districts.
Other terms and tactics that are frequently used:
- “Hijacking” redraws two districts in such a way as to force two incumbents to run against each other in one district, ensuring that one of them will be eliminated.
- “Kidnapping” moves an incumbent’s home address into another district.[21] Reelection can become more difficult when the incumbent no longer resides in the district, or possibly faces reelection from a new district with a new voter base. This is often employed against politicians who represent multiple urban areas, in which larger cities will be removed from the district in order to make the district more rural.
As we see from this subject, there is often much to be desired in the way of fairness for all people when politics is practices with an eye on power rather than what is best for all. It is mandatory to be aware of what is happening and not to be lulled into complacency. We owe this to ourselves and others to be aware.
Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering Explained — What Is It and Why Does it Matter?
A very short explicit definition of the political term “gerrymandering”. Helpful for students in AP Government, an intro to political science course or just random people on the internet who through synchronicity landed here.
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Book
Note: books come in many forms, electronic, audible and the standard paperback and hardcover. Using our links, you can sample the book and even purchase it. Electronic and audible copies are available instantly. Others are available promptly.
One Person, One Vote: A Surprising History of Gerrymandering in America
A redistricting crisis is now upon us. This surprising, compelling book tells the history of how we got to this moment—from the Founding Fathers to today’s high-tech manipulation of election districts—and shows us as well how to protect our most sacred, hard-fought principle of one person, one vote. Here is THE book on gerrymandering for citizens, politicians, journalists, activists, and voters.
“Seabrook’s lucid account of the origins and evolution of gerrymandering—the deliberate and partisan doctoring of district borders for electoral advantage—makes a potentially dry, wonky subject accessible and engaging for a broad audience.” —The New York Times
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Gerrymandering: Crash Course Government and Politics #37
Today Craig is going to talk about a topic that makes voters and politicians alike ANGRY! We’re going to talk about Gerrymandering – that is the process in which voting districts are redrawn in a way to favor one party during elections. As you’ll see, this is why election outcomes on Census years (which tend to be when districts are redrawn) are a really big deal. So we’ll talk about how some of these cockamamie voting districts come to be and explain how Gerrymandering can affect the outcomes (and misrepresent voters) during elections. But even with all these rage-inducing and bizarre district maps, it’s important to remember that it isn’t ALL political scheming, but also a reflection of the tendency for Democrats to live in urban areas.
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Book
Becoming a Democracy: How We Can Fix the Electoral College, Gerrymandering, and Our Elections
The United States wasn’t built as a democracy. The Senate doesn’t represent people. Both sides hate gerrymandering and the courts refuse to fix it. Our right to be heard is defeated by voter suppression and an Electoral College system that concentrates power in a handful of states and too often reverses the popular vote. But within our flawed system, we have the tools to tackle our most stubborn election problems by flexing state and local power (no constitutional amendments or courts required).
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What Is Gerrymandering and What Does It Mean for Me as a Voter?
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boundaries that produce “safe seats,” where one party seemingly holds a permanent grip on a majority of voters, or, gerrymandering districts. Does this phenomenon push the electorate to reward candidates representing their party’s ideological extremes?
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A revelatory account by the best-selling author of Ratf–ked that will give you hope that America’s fragile democracy can still be saved.
Following Ratf–ked, his “extraordinary timely and undeniably important” (New York Times Book Review) expose of how a small cadre of Republican operatives rigged American elections, David Daley emerged as one of the nation’s leading authorities on gerrymandering. In Unrigged, he charts a vibrant political movement that is rising in the wake of his and other reporters’ revelations.
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Gerrymandering Is Destroying the Political Center
It is alleged that the practice of gerrymandering — dividing election districts into units to favor a particular group — subverts democracy by making congressional districts “safe” for one party or the other. As a result, only those voting in primaries are in effect choosing our representatives. Are primary voters more extreme in their views, and therefore pulling democrats to the left and republicans to the right? Or is the impact of gerrymandering actually overblown, while other more divisive contributing factors like the emergence of ideologically charged TV and radio outlets, the role of the internet and social network “echo chambers,” and campaign finance practices are in fact the real drivers of increasing partisanship? If gerrymandering is a major problem, is there policy or constitutional principles that might be part of the solution? Presented in partnership with the National Constitution Center
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This program is read by the author – Stacy Abrams
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Gerrymandering Explained
84% of congressional districts are uncompetitive. That’s because gerrymandering allows politicians choose their voters instead of voters choosing their politicians.
Good news, though. Represent. Us members across the political spectrum are joining together in states like Ohio, Michigan, Utah, Missouri, and Colorado to bring people-powered campaigns to the ballot that would stop gerrymandering.
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