Electoral Geography

In democracies, politics must follow legally prescribed rules. But all parties to the political process can find ways of bending those rules to their advantage. A case in point is the drawing of legislative district boundaries.

The boundaries separating legislative districts within the United States and other countries are redrawn periodically to ensure that each district has approximately the same population. Boundaries must be redrawn because migration inevitably results in some districts gaining population and others losing population. The 435 districts of the U.S. House of Representatives are redrawn every 10 years, following the Census Bureau’s release of official population figures.

Gerrymandering

Redrawing legislative boundaries to benefit the party in power is called gerrymandering. The term gerrymandering was named for Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), governor of Massachusetts (1810–1812) and vice president of the United States (1813–1814). As governor, Gerry signed a bill that redistricted the state to benefit his party. An opponent observed that an oddly shaped new district looked like a “salamander,” whereupon another opponent responded that it was a “gerrymander.” A newspaper subsequently printed a cartoon of a monster named “gerrymander” with a body shaped like the district.

The Original Gerrymandering Cartoon

Gerrymandering takes two forms:

• Cracking. Like-minded voters are spread across several districts to prevent them from reaching a majority in any of them, thus wasting their votes.

• Packing. Like-minded voters are stacked in one district to prevent them from affecting elections in other districts.

Gerrymandering: Cracking

Like-minded voters are spread across many districts as a minority. Assume there are 50 voters, 20 supporters of the Red Party and 30 supporters of the Blue Party. If the Blue Party controls the redistricting process, it could create five districts all with slender majorities of Blue Party voters. As a result, the votes of all Red Party supporters are wasted.

Gerrymandering: Packing

Like-minded voters are stacked into a few districts. Assume there are 50 voters, 20 supporters of the Red Party and 30 supporters of the Blue Party. If the Blue Party controls the redistricting process, it could pack most of the Red Party voters into one district with an overwhelming majority, leaving four districts with solid Blue Party majorities.

Pause & Reflect 8.4.5

What challenges do voters and elected officials face when a district is not compact?

Packing has been especially attractive for creating districts inclined to elect people of color. Because the two largest ethnic groups in the United States (African Americans and most Hispanics other than Cubans) tend to vote Democratic—in some elections more than 90 percent of African Americans vote Democratic—creating a majority African American district virtually guarantees election of a Democrat. Republicans support a “packed” Democratic district because they are better able to draw boundaries that are favorable to their candidates in the rest of the state

Most Gerrymandered States and Districts, 2018