The Gerrymander How to Divide and Conquer your Enemy A Case Study on Map Use Abuse

Incumbency Special Advantage: Gerrymandering Reapportionment: Redistribution of 435 seats in the House on the basis of changes in the state populations. Reps per state determined by pop. Census conducted every 10 yrs. Census shows populations changes and seats are allotted based upon new numbers

Special Advantage: Gerrymandering Redistricting: When seats change, district boundaries must change. Party controlling state legislature redraws district boundaries. Gerrymandering = redrawing boundaries to favor party in power

Gerrymandering Techniques Two gerrymandering techniques, packing and cracking, allow maximizing votes for one party while minimizing votes for the opposition. Packing concentrates opposition voters in a few districts that are already a majority in that party. Cracking breaks down regions that will dilute the opposition so that a slight majority for the other party.

Gerrymandering Example Diagram Left: Four districts of even “Red” and “Green” party voters, 8 from each party. Right: Redrawing the balanced electoral districts in this example creates only one packed district of 14 green voters. The remaining 18 green voters are cracked across the 3 other districts. The result is a 3-to-1 advantage for the “Red” party.

Gerrymandering Effects Gerrymandered districts favor incumbents that are difficult to unseat in elections, thus creating safe seats. Safe districts with incumbents with less incentive to govern by constituents’ needs Meaningful campaigns are also influenced, further demoralizing voters. In the 2002 election, only four incumbents in the US Congress were defeated, the lowest number in history. This was in part due to redistricting and gerrymandering by incumbents.

Gerrymandering Example: Arizona's 2nd congressional district The unusual division was not drawn to favor politicians, but to separate the Hopi and the Navajo tribes, due to historic tensions. Since the Hopi reservation is completely surrounded by the Navajo reservation, and in order to comply with current Arizona redistricting laws, some means of connection was required that avoided including large portions of Navajo land, hence the narrow Colorado River connection.

Gerrymandering Example: Texas’s 22nd congressional district This district was the result of redistricting in 2003, when Texas congress had become republican, the first time since Reconstruction This mid-decade redistricting resulted in six additional seats in US congress

Gerrymandering Example: California’s 38th congressional district District 38 was produced by California's incumbent gerrymandering, as home to democrat Grace Flores Napolitano, who ran unopposed in 2004

Gerrymandering Example: Illinois’s 4th congressional district The unusual "earmuff" shape connects two Hispanic neighborhoods while remaining contiguous by following Interstate 294.

Gerrymandering Example: Texas’s 25th congressional district U.S. congressional districts covering Travis County (outlined in red) in 2002, left, and 2004, right. In 2003, Republicans in the Texas legislature redistricted the state, diluting the voting power of the heavily Democratic county by parceling its residents out to more Republican districts. The district in orange is the infamous "Fajita strip" district 25 (intended as a Democratic district), while the other two districts (10 and 21) are intended to elect Republicans. District 25 has now been redrawn as a result of the 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision, and is no longer a "Fajita strip."

Gerrymandering Example: Texas’s 25th congressional district U

Gerrymandering Example: Texas’s 25th congressional district The conservative 51st District was renumbered the 50th District after the 2000 census, and was gerrymandered to include the more conservative community of Clairemont Mesa, and to exclude the relatively liberal areas of La Jolla and Univ. of Calif. at San Diego, which were moved to the more-liberal 53rd District.

Remedies Redistricting was only allowed after the ten year census The United States Supreme Court upheld all of the 2003 Texas redistricting engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, except for the "fajita" district, which would have affected racial and ethnic minority groups. This decision now allows politicians to redraw and gerrymander districts as often as they like to protect their political parties and seats, provided they do not harm racial and ethnic minority groups.

Remedies Some states have taken or considered taking steps to revoke this rule A separate non-partisan redistricting authority would choose districts in order to prevent abuse. Some examples are: Washington State Redistricting Commission Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission Rhode Island Reapportionment Commission New Jersey Redistricting Commission The city of San Diego also uses such a system according to its municipal charter.