Gerrymander - a voting district game by GameTheory With redistricting now beginning in many states, the need for Congress to pass reform legislation is more urgent than ever. How so? In 2010, Republicans in an effort to control the drawing of congressional maps forged a campaign to win majorities in as many state legislatures as possible. One year later, in Wesberry v. Sanders, the Court declared that congressional electoral districts must be drawn in such a way that, as nearly as is practicable, one mans vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as anothers. And in the same year, the Court affirmed, in Reynolds v. Sims, that the Equal Protection Clause requires that the seats in both houses of a bicameral state legislature must be apportioned on a population basis.. FAHEY: So once every 10 years, after we complete the census, we end up redrawing our election maps for who your state representatives will be and who your federal congressional members will be. Despite the use of computers, politics does get in the way and many redistricting plans are challenged in the courts, with accusations of racial gerrymandering tossed about. - Definition & Meaning, Witness: Definition & Role in Criminology, What is a Public Defender? Gerrymandering is the act of drawing congressional, state legislative or other political boundaries to favor a political party or one particular candidate for elected office . North Carolina's 12th Congressional District looks kind of like a long blob that stretches out thinly across the state. Computers and GIS were utilized in the 1990, 2000, and 2010 Census by the states to make redistricting as fair as possible. The purpose of gerrymandering is to grant one party power over another by creating districts that hold dense concentrations of voters who are favorable to their policies. I mean, thats just what it is. In a democracy, what we have as a final tool are our votes. Rather than allowing for new candidates to challenge congressional candidates, gerrymandering virtually assures that an incumbent (a politician currently in office) will be reelected. They are literally going through communities and drawing these lines to figure out which voters do they want in their district and which ones don't they want. A: Not under the U.S. Constitution. And its perfectly legal. MARTIN: Forgive me, but, you know, I'm sure some people are listening to our conversation who would think, well, that's just diabolical. Gerrymandering is by far the most effective modern tool for a party seeking to swing election outcomes in the US. When I was in office, if you lived in this house you were my constituent. Its possible no agreement will be reached, and the courts will have to step in. Describe the two ways that officials gerrymander a district? A lot, says Katie Fahey. For example, in 2018, Democrats in Wisconsin won every statewide office and a majority of the statewide vote, but thanks to gerrymandering, won only 36 of the 99 seats in the state assembly. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Following Kennedys retirement in 2018, the Supreme Court once again took up the issue of the justiciability of political gerrymandering claims in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019). Updates? The states that allow their legislatures to perform the redistricting are: Independent commissions: These apolitical panels are used in four states to redraw legislative districts. Why do you think that is? How do you think the outcome of the game would have been different had the opposing party had control of redistricting? Reapportionment WebQuest Companion Worksheet Fillable.pdf Both parties have always played the redistricting game. The way congressional and legislative boundaries are drawn determines who wins federal and state elections, and ultimately which political party holds the power in making crucial policy decisions. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. Population Distribution Overview & Factors | What Affects Population Distribution? Overall, then, the GOP will quite likely gain an advantage in taking back the House, but just how much of an advantage is still up in the air. This road is sort of the boundary. Accuracy and availability may vary. This manipulation of electoral districts is known as gerrymandering. What are the consequences of the way the United States draws its congressional maps? The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Cracking-breaking up districts so your party always has more democratic or republican voters Packing-Putting all of the democrats or republicans into very few districts while the opposing side is made up of many Theyre in the same school district. 2. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts . And they are less likely to cooperate with each other, and that gets us to the politics we have now. If youre a member of Congress representing that type of district, you dont hear different points of view. The Brennan Center works to reform and defend our countrys systems of democracy and justice. To keep politics and the potential for gerrymandering out of the process, state lawmakers and public officials are prohibited from serving on the commissions. What are cracking and packing? They can protest, but Republican state legislature majorities wont care. The Supreme Courts 2019 decision in Rucho v. Common Cause greenlighting partisan gerrymandering has made things worse. Causes of Death, Determinants of Mortality & Mortality Rates, Prorupted State, Elongated State & Fragmented State | Concepts, Examples & Shapes, Boundaries Overview & Types | Physical, Political & Cultural Boundaries, Geography of Religion | Relationship, Impact & Conflicts, Supranationalism, Devolution & Democratization | Concepts, Forces, & Examples. After the Census Bureau releasesdetailed population and demographic data from the 2020 census on August 12, states and local governments begin the once-a-decade process of drawing new voting district boundaries known as redistricting. 2. Presidential Power Types & Examples | What Are the Powers of the President? One of the congressional districts was shaped very strangely and, as the story goes, one Federalist remarked that the district looked like a salamander. One method is through " packing ," in which the voters of . But time is running short. The term is derived from the name of Gov. Whats on the left side is in my district. Take a closer look at and read about proposed maps in Texas and New York. The first method is called the "excess vote." Gerrymandering in the United States - Wikipedia Targeting the political power of communities of color is also often a key element of partisan gerrymandering. In theory, this is mainly to take into account population changes as states grow and shrink, but in practice it serves as an opportunity for parties to seize the political advantage for the next decade, drawing gerrymandered maps that will help them win. Describe the two ways that officials gerrymander a district? It happened just after the 2010 midterm election wave, which cost the party more than 700 state legislature seats and gave the GOP total political control of most swing states. There are three techniques used to gerrymander districts. And even though our elected officials change out every so often, a lot of the political strategists have been here for decades. The goal: to see if they can gerrymander their party to power. An error occurred trying to load this video. The Boston Weekly Messenger brought the term 'gerrymander' into common usage, when it subsequently printed an editorial cartoon that showed the district in question with a monster's head, arms, and tail, and named the creature a gerrymander. ThoughtCo. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/gerrymandering-1435417. Since a single party usually controls each state legislature, it is in the best interest of the party in power to redistrict their state so that their party will have more seats in the House than the opposition party. Thus, the term 'gerrymander' was birthed as the newspaper's tongue-in-cheek response. A couple more states, most notably Michigan, put commissions rather than legislatures in charge of redistricting. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like You are a lobbyist for an interest group, and you are asked to get a bill passed within a 10-year period. This is an issue Michigans independent redistricting commission is currently facing. And even though our elected officials change out every so often, a lot of the political strategists have been here for decades. For the plants, see Germander. In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that districts must follow the principle of "one man, one vote" and have fair borders and an appropriate population mixture. So what do you say has gone off the rails with this process? But honestly, it's not. What it has become to mean is districts that I dont like because somebody else drew them. The former steel town of Tarentum in western Pennsylvania is a mix of working-class Republicans and Democrats. Cracking splits groups of people with similar characteristics, such as voters of the same party affiliation, across multiple districts. In that case, the plaintiffs argued that the discriminatory effects of the redistricting plan could be measured objectively by comparing the efficiency of votes cast for Republican or Democratic candidates in state legislative elections since 2012. Do you think that was fair? With the help of changing voting patterns and court decisions, Democrats were able to overcome that disadvantage in 2018 and 2020. I want to just be clear that both parties have been accused of this, and both parties have been successfully sued because of this. In massive victories for Republicans, North Carolinas newly GOP-controlled state Supreme Court has thrown out a previous ruling against gerrymandered voting maps and upheld a photo voter identification law that colleagues had struck down as racially biased, Minnesota a state where it is already easy to vote is moving make it even easier, countering the national trend of states imposing further restrictions on balloting. The Voting Rights Act and the Constitution prohibit racial discrimination in redistricting. But we all care about our local community - our water, our schools, our safety, our ability to make a livelihood. The Brennan Center is a nonpartisan law and policy institute, striving to uphold the values of democracy. Describe the two ways that officials gerrymander a district? The redrawing of maps that followed produced some of the most extreme gerrymanders in history. The Constitution, to favor a political party or one particular candidate for elected office, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, based on the decennial census every 10 years, North Dakota (Legislative districts only), South Dakota (Legislative districts only), Pennsylvania (Legislative districts only). But most 39 states have state lawmakers draw the new maps for Congress. Barring an immense change in voting patterns, a well-executed gerrymander can nearly guarantee a partys dominance in a congressional delegation or state legislative chamber. (2020, August 27). Drawing legislative district lines with the intention of increasing the likelihood that the party's candidates will win as many seats as feasible. I have hope that America has moved far enough that a Eva Clayton could get elected. You can find them all here. 7. Instead, the majority of African Americans lived in cities along Interstate 85. gerrymandering, in U.S. politics, the practice of drawing the boundaries of electoral districts in a way that gives one political party an unfair advantage over its rivals (political or partisan gerrymandering) or that dilutes the voting power of members of ethnic or linguistic minority groups (racial gerrymandering). In the House of Representatives, the current map is already tilted in Republicans favor. They can try suing, but the Supreme Court has limited their legal options. And one of the things that I didn't even realize how big it was until I started trying to actually change the system was how big the political industry is. At Vox, we believe that everyone deserves access to information that helps them understand and shape the world they live in. Fair representation depends on it. In such a system, the seats in the legislature each party gets would depend on what proportion of the vote they win in the relevant area. It has to do with where Americans live. In states where they controlled the process of drawing congressional district boundaries, they captured seven out of 10 seats with only 56 percent of the popular vote. In battleground Pennsylvania, for example, the congressional map gave Republicans a virtual lock on 13 of the state's 18 congressional districts, even in elections where Democrats won the majority of the statewide congressional vote. How does redistricting in Hexapolis compare to the practice in the United States? MARTIN: That was Katie Fahey, executive director of The People, which works to address extreme partisan gerrymandering across the country. Rosenberg, Matt. Gerrymandering and Reapportionment: An Explanation of Both - Owlcation gerrymandering. This website helped me pass! While legislative and congressional district shapes may look wildly different from state to state, most attempts to gerrymander can best be understood through the lens of two basic techniques: cracking and packing. Its a shift we helped design and we pushed for. Here are six things to know about partisan gerrymandering and how it impacts our democracy. Multiple seats, perhaps, in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia. Even Democrats were unwilling to go this far in their voting reform legislation. In this lesson, students use an interactive tool to try their hand at drawing congressional districts. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. Thomas Wolf, Gabriella Sanchez, 2023 Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, Government Targeting of Minority Communities, National Task Force on Democracy Reform & the Rule of Law, Alaska Supreme Court Strikes Down Gerrymandered Districts, How Voting Districts Could Change Before 2024, Three Takeaways on Redistricting and Competition in the 2022 Midterms, Friends of the Court Weigh In on the Independent State Legislature Theory. Gerrymandering: Definition, History, Types & Examples It's their choice. The party in power, whether Republican or Democrat typically draws maps to protect its own members. That's the practice of drawing electoral district lines, sometimes in absurd shapes, in a manner designed not to benefit voters but to benefit the politicians of one party or another. Thats because states are required by law to redraw all 435 congressional and legislative boundaries based on the decennial census every 10 years. Six states use advisory commissions to draw state legislative districts. In battleground Pennsylvania, for example, the congressional map gave Republicans a virtual lock on 13 of the states 18 congressional districts, even in elections where Democrats won the majority of the statewide congressional vote. Heres a breakdown of who is responsible for redistricting in each state: State legislatures: In 30 states, the elected state lawmakers are responsible for drawing their own legislative districts and in 31 states the boundaries for the congressional districts in their states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York Universitys School of Law. Draw upon what you learn from this lesson on gerrymandering to accomplish these goals: 21 chapters | I just think some people might have a hard time believing it. It is a way that governing parties try to cement themselves in power by tilting the political map steeply in their favor. 5. And it creates districts of voters who are socioeconomically, racially or politically alike so that members of Congress are safe from potential challengers and, as a result, have little reason to compromise with their colleagues from the other party. Want more Lessons of the Day? https://www.britannica.com/topic/gerrymandering, Brennan Center for Justice - Gerrymandering Explained, Social Science LibreTexts - Gerrymandering, gerrymander - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), N. Carolina justices hand GOP big wins with election rulings, Minnesota takes steps to make it even easier to vote. When you consider redistricting and gerrymandering in the real world, what thoughts, feelings, connections or questions come up for you? The battle lines for the next decade of US politics are about to be set. Describe the two ways that officials gerrymander a district? Google Pay. Gerrymandering - Wikipedia We just had $14 billion spent in this election. https://www.thoughtco.com/gerrymandering-1435417 (accessed May 2, 2023). How did they work? Gerrymandering also means redrawing district boundaries, but it includes a lot of politics in the process.