1. Why does Gerrymandering hurt our political system?

2. Do Now:
Take a look at the following maps!
How can redrawing the map impact congressional elections?

3. Representation of the Population?
2014 two Senators represented 897,934 Delawarans and the same number of Senators represented 38 million Californians.
House Representatives are supposed to fix the problem associated with larger populations being underrepresented by the Senate.

4. DISCUSS!
Based on the following 3 slides, why do Republicans seem to have such an advantage over Democrats?

8. How do political parties have an advantage?
Gerrymandering can help swing election outcomes where either Republicans or Democrats can win certain elections.

9. What is gerrymandering?
How was gerrymandering established?
Why does the practice of gerrymandering persist?

10. How did it all begin? Gerrymandering = Gerry + Salamander
Elbridge Gerry was the governor of Massachusetts in 1812
He helped to create congressional districts to favor the electoral chance of Democratic- Republicans
They were oddly shaped and looked like a salamander

11. How are Congressional districts created?
Every 10 years, state legislatures create congressional districts for members of the House of Representatives to represent.
The state legislatures should use new census data to account for populations movements
They must have roughly equivalent populations so that all state residents are represented in a proportional way.

12. Political Parties want to win during census years!
The party with a majority in state legislature runs the redistricting process.
That’s why it pays to have a majority in the year after the census is taken!
Gerrymandered districts have boundaries that are designed to favor the political interests of the party drawing those boundaries.

13. Cracking vs. Packing
Cracking splits a block of opposition voters into several districts so that their influence is limited
This prevents a large block of voters from getting a representative from their party
Packing concentrates opposition voters in only a few districts
This allows the other party to win a majority in the remaining districts

14. Gerrymandering + Incumbent Advantage
Gerrymandering can create a number of SAFE DISTRICTS in which candidates of one party are virtually impossible to defeat
Why? Because they are packed with a majority of voters from their party
Creating SAFE districts is yet another way to protect incumbents and prevent challengers from getting reelected.

15. Assess the charts and address the following question:
DISCUSS!
Refer to Activity #1!
Assess the charts and address the following question:
Does racial gerrymandering help minorities get elected? Why or why not?

16. Conclusions
While the racial/ethnic diversity in Congress has increased overall, these groups continue to be more underrepresented
The House has slightly more ethnic/ racial diversity than the Senate because of SAFE districts created by Gerrymandering
The Senate continues to be less diverse because of incumbent advantage/ difficulty for challengers to get elected

17. Top Gerrymandered Districts

18. North Carolina
Activity #2:
How could the following districts be considered controversial?

19. 12th District
In North Carolina, the state legislature is responsible for drawing both congressional and state legislative district lines.

20. The 12th District is Very Controversial
North Carolina's congressional district map has been the source of ongoing controversy and litigation.
The map was thrown out by a federal court in February 2016.
State lawmakers drafted a new map and delayed the state's congressional primary from March 15 to June 7.
On June 27, 2016, the United States Supreme Court announced that it would hear McCrory v. Harris, the state's appeal of the lower court's decision to throw out the map.

22. The Outcome
On August 11, 2016, a federal court ruled that North Carolina's state legislative district map constituted an illegal racial gerrymander.
Although the court allowed the existing map to be used for the 2016 general election, it did order state lawmakers to draft a new map at their next legislative session.

23. Does racial gerrymandering seem constitutional? Why or why not?
DISCUSS!
Refer to Activity #3!
Refer to the document reading and address the following question in your groups:
Does racial gerrymandering seem constitutional? Why or why not?

24. SUMMARY!
Should the congressional redistricting be reformed? Who should be responsible for redrawing the maps? Why?