Given the massive political polarization across the United States, there isn’t much that Americans can agree on these days. However, there is one thing that we can come to a consensus on the American election system favors politicians, not the people. Arguably the most well-known way this happens is by gerrymandering. But the question arises, what exactly is gerrymandering?
The US is a representative democracy, meaning that voters elect representatives who are supposed to represent constituents. States are partitioned into districts, with a representative being elected by the citizens of a district. Gerrymandering challenges this fundamental principle, having the politicians choose the voters instead of voters choosing the politician. Districts are redrawn every decade to account for population shifts with the approval of state legislatures. Using historical data from past elections, politicians can accurately predict how voters will vote in the future. With this data in hand, maps are redrawn to favor the party with control of the legislature.
Packing and cracking are the two main methods used to dilute the power of voters. Cracking is used to split the voters of an opposing party into losing districts, so their votes are reduced in power. For example, take a state where 51% of citizens support the Orange Party, but 49% support the Yellow Party. By drawing every district as a 51-49 split of Orange-Yellow voters, the Orange Party will win every district even though the state is almost equally split between the two parties. The votes of the Yellow Party mean nothing because they end up being edged out by the Orange everywhere.
On the other hand, packing involves creating throw-away districts, filled with a single party, so the other seats become easier to win for the opposing party. Going back to the Orange versus Yellow example, assume that there are 100 voters, 55 Orange, and 45 yellow. If we split this state into 5 districts of 20 voters each, it would make sense for Orange to win 3 and Yellow to win 2. However, assume that we create one district that contains only Orange voters. The remaining partitions could use cracking on the 35 Orange voters, as there are 10 more Yellow voters, and thus Yellow would end up winning 4 races.
When looking at the numbers, it becomes clear how effective gerrymandering is at keeping the ruling party in power. A clear example is the 2018 Wisconsin State Assembly Election. Democrats won the popular vote by over 200,000 votes or 8 percent. However, Republicans still ended up with 63 seats, nearly double the 36 seats of the Democrats. And as technology gets more and more advanced, parties are now using maps generated by computers that maximize the advantage they hold.
Luckily, all hope is not lost. In about 10 states, laws have been passed enacting an independent redistricting commission, separate from the legislature, to draw maps and boundaries instead. Laws that take away the power of gerrymandering from state legislatures are important to make sure that elections in the US remain democratic. Voting should mean more than getting a sticker, and it is about time that politicians realize that.