What is gerrymandering in US elections? What you need to know in 500 words | US Election News 2024

EXPLANER

Gerrymandering, the partisan redrawing of electoral districts, is as old as the United States and yet it remains a controversial element of its elections.

This has been called election fraud, a power grab, and just plain underhandedness.

But it's legal, and both Republicans and Democrats do it.

Gerrymandering, the process of redrawing voting districts to favor political parties, is almost as old as the United States and yet it remains an integral part of the modern political process.

In this year's general election, it could affect the outcome of crucial elections in the U.S. House of Representatives as well as state legislatures.

How does gerrymandering work?

Typically, once a decade, states update their voting districts to reflect demographic changes.

This is where gerrymandering creeps into the process. Political parties attempt to redraw electoral maps to give their side the greatest number of seats in state legislatures and Congress.

District boundaries are manipulated to bring like-minded voters together or to divide them, increasing or diluting their voting power.

The results are often distorted districts with squiggly boundaries drawn to include some voters and leave others out.

Essentially, gerrymandering allows politicians to choose their voters, not the other way around.

The word was coined in 1812 when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry redrew the state Senate electoral map to benefit his party.

The result was an oddly shaped neighborhood that resembled a salamander.

This inspired cartoonist Elkanah Tisdale to draw a mythical creature for the Boston Gazette, calling it the Gerry-mander. The name stuck.

Creating complacent politicians?

Gerrymandering is controversial and not just because it is blatant vote appropriation. Critics say it could dilute the voting power of racial minorities and undermine democracy.

A 2023 study by Harvard University researchers found that gerrymandering often creates safe seats for politicians, meaning their races are less competitive. In turn, these politicians become less responsive to the needs of their voters, who are thus discouraged from voting.

At least eight states have clearly written opposition to partisan redistricting in their constitutions. Others use independent commissions to make changes. But the majority of states lack safeguards.

National efforts in the last Congress also failed to ban partisan gerrymandering.

In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was up to state courts to decide legal battles over voting maps.

It's now a state-by-state fight over the role of partisan politics in voting districts, with some recent decisions potentially affecting the outcome of the 2024 election.

For example, in South Carolina, a new voting map transformed a swing district into a safer Republican district, sparking outrage among voting rights advocates.

In Louisiana and Alabama, new maps could mean at least one additional House seat in each state for Democrats.

And in North Carolina, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of a hand-picked congressional map, possibly giving Republicans three additional seats in the House.

Each of these races is important: Control of the U.S. House of Representatives is decided by district-level votes, with the fate of national legislation hanging in the balance.

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