Gerrymandering

In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is the political manipulation of legislative boundaries for partisan or incumbency protection purposes. It is one of the oldest political expressions, traceable to the early days of the republic, and still in current use.

At various times, gerrymandering has been used to exclude and include racial minorities in the electoral processes. Following the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and subsequent court decisions, gerrymandering has been used to create majority-minority districts. These are political districts in which members of a racial or ethnic minority (as opposed to white non-Hispanic) make up an effective voting majority. This gives them the ability to participate and elect representatives of their own choosing, and has been the solution of choice in situations where there is, or could be, racial or ethnic vote dilution. In this sense, gerrymandering concurs to improve the ability of minority voters to elect a candidate of their choice in a particular district, increasing their power of representation and helping create a greater multicultural America.

The term gerrymandering derived from the name of Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, who, in 1811, signed a bill readjusting the representative districts so to favor the Democrats and weaken the Federalists, although the last-named party polled nearly two-thirds of the votes cast. The word was coined because one of the contorted districts in the Boston area was said to resemble the shape of a salamander. Some historians argue that Governor Gerry, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of James Madison's vice presidents, never sponsored the redistricting bill and is said to have signed it reluctantly. But his name has been infamously perpetuated.

In technical terms, the two aims of gerrymandering are to maximize the effect of supporters’ votes and to minimize the effect of opponents’ votes. One strategy, packing, is to concentrate as many voters of one type into a single electoral district to reduce their influence in other districts. A second strategy, cracking, involves spreading out voters of a particular type among many districts in order to deny them a sufficiently large voting [Page 960]bloc in any particular district. The strategies are typically combined, creating a few forfeit seats for packed voters of one type in order to secure even greater representation for voters of another type. Throughout the years many states operated a more or less explicit gerrymandering. Congressional majorities in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Texas significantly reduced the competitiveness of their congressional districts, whereas states such as California, New Jersey, and New York protected the seats of the incumbents. Political scientists agree that one relevant consequence is that in the gerrymandered districts the threat of competition in the primary election often becomes more worrisome than the general election. On the other hand, there is no clear convergence on the case for gerrymandering as a primary source of polarization in Congress.