From skits on Saturday Night Live to NBC Nightly News, everyone seems to be talking about gerrymandering, but what exactly is it? At that, how will it affect the coming election?
The word “gerrymandering” was formed from the actions of the early 1800s governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry. Gerry signed off on a measure to change the district lines in Massachusetts so that his party, the Jeffersonian Republicans, would have more votes in the House of Representatives. He changed the lines so drastically that the voting district of Massachusetts was depicted as a salamander-like monster in a Boston Gazette political cartoon published in March 1812. Thus, the Gerrymander was born.
Julia Krischenbuam, a Research and Program Associate, and Michael Li, Senior Counselor for the Brennan Center, says state gerrymandering occurs when state representatives manipulate district lines. Redistricting occurs every ten years after the United States Census has been collected.
The redrawing of district lines occurs to help comply with changing populations in accordance with the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 by Congress to work to stop racial discrimination in voting. Due to this act, district lines divide a state into equal populations that vote for a representative in the House.
However, this process that was designed to be a solution for underrepresentation can quickly become a problem when politicians draw district lines to get themselves or their party more votes.
“Gerrymandering empowers politicians to choose their voters. This tends to occur especially when line drawing is left to legislatures and one political party controls the process, as has become increasingly common,” Li said.
Harvard professor of government and statistics Kosuke Imai states, “Elections are a way to hold politicians accountable for what their constituency wants.”
By electing specific politicians, the voters of America can get their opinions voiced in government. Elections hold politicians responsible for the wishes of voters as they have a large goal in mind: win the next election.
While gerrymandering seems like a common mistake of politicians a long ago, it still occurs in the United States today. In June of 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama state politician’s congressional map was illegal as it violated the Voting Rights Act. The Justices wrote that they were “deeply troubled” by how the state specifically drew the lines to censor the voice of Black voters.
In the case Allen v. Milligan (2023), The Supreme Court demanded that the district lines be redrawn to represent Black voters accurately. Alabama politicians drew the district lines in such a way that compacted the majority of Black votes into a single district and dispersed the rest into another. This made it so Black votes had significant weight in only one district instead of two.
This is a prime example of a racial gerrymander: the illegal drawing of congressional district lines to censor a specific race of voters directly.
This creates an issue not only on an ethical and racial level but also a nationwide election issue. These districts determine the U.S. national representatives and a harmful block is created with gerrymandering when it comes to voting for our members of Congress.
This is not an issue between Democrats and Republicans, though; both parties are guilty of gerrymandering. Imai and his ALARM research team ran multiple nonpartisan simulations, and the results were similar to what the United States currently has in place. As both Democrats and Republicans are gerrymandering district lines in their favor, it ends up creating a stalemate. The drastic effect of gerrymandering is working to lock in incumbent politicians, letting them serve more terms and not allowing as many new politicians into office.
As gerrymandering continues to occur, it is imperative that Americans are aware and informed about the potential effects of political control. California has worked to solve gerrymandering by having the district lines redrawn by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission (CCRC), instead of politicians that can manipulate lines for their own benefit. Although California has made state politics more ethical and accurate, several other states have not. To get involved in implementing the fair drawing of district lines, visit Common Cause.
