What is Gerrymandering?
Gerrymandering is a term thrown around every now and then, but what exactly is it? Gerrymandering is a form of redistricting, in which each state is allowed to redraw the boundaries of their electoral district boundaries. Redistricting of these boundaries happen after every census, so about every ten years. There are as many electoral districts as there are representatives for the House in each state, meaning that seven states (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming) have only one electoral district that encompasses the entire state and Texas, for example, has thirty six districts.
So what kind of redistricting is gerrymandering? Well, gerrymandering is the term used to describe the intentional use of redistricting to benefit a specific interest or even a specific group of voters. The term was born in 1812 when the state districts for Massachusetts were strangely drawn for the first time in order to benefit the governor’s, Elbridge Gerry, political party at the time, the Democratic-Republican Party. The opposite party, the Federalist Party, complained about this and even stated that one of the districts took the form of a monster or a salamander (as seen in the picture above), and the combination of the governor’s last name and the salamander gave birth to the word we’ve used to describe this action to this day, gerrymandering.
Now what can gerrymandering be used for? There are three types of gerrymandering: partisan gerrymandering, racial and ethnic gerrymandering, and incumbent gerrymandering.
Partisan gerrymandering aims to increase the representation of one political party at the expense of the other party. For example, if a state gerrymanders their districts to favor the Democratic Party, it will be at the expense of the Republican districts. In order to accomplish this, strategic calculation is required to concentrate the opposing party’s supporters into a small number of districts while maximizing the number of districts that the favored party will win. Doing this allows the party in charge of the redistricting to “waste” the votes of the opposing party and put incumbents at risk by either changing their constituencies or having two of them fight for the same seat.
The second form of gerrymandering is the racial and ethnic gerrymandering. This type of gerrymandering increases the likelihood that members of racial and ethnic minorities will be elected as representatives. This is achieved by concentrating voters of minority groups into specific congressional districts. This type of gerrymandering results in a certain type of district, called majority-minority districts in which the minority ethnicity constitutes the electoral majority within the district. This type of gerrymandering often leads to very strangely shaped districts.
The third form of gerrymandering, incumbent gerrymandering, is much less common than the other two forms of gerrymandering. This is when strategic redistricting is used to protect the reelection prospects of an incumbent representative. This type of gerrymandering is less compelling to parties as it does not necessarily improve the likelihood of the party overall. Members of state legislatures that are eyeing a seat in the the House may also have more of an incentive to ensure the victory of their party rather than protect the seat of a rival.
