Gerrymandering
How politicians manipulate electoral district boundaries to choose their voters before voters choose them, and why fixing it is so difficult.
What Gerrymandering Is
Gerrymandering is the deliberate manipulation of electoral district boundaries to give one party a systematic advantage. The term dates to 1812, when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting plan that created a district so contorted it resembled a salamander. Two centuries later, the practice has become far more sophisticated, powered by granular voter data and computer algorithms that can draw maps optimized for partisan advantage with surgical precision.
The two primary gerrymandering techniques are 'packing' and 'cracking.' Packing concentrates opposition voters into a small number of districts they win overwhelmingly, wasting their excess votes. Cracking spreads opposition voters across many districts so they remain a minority in each. Used together, these techniques allow a party that wins, say, 50% of the statewide vote to win 65% or more of the legislative seats.
