We all know that the U.S. election system is a little funky. From the strange electoral college, to unknown super PACs, to large amounts of dark money, there are many things to complain about when it comes to choosing this country’s leaders. The most disturbing element, though, of the election system is the very existence of gerrymandering.
After each census, each and every state goes through the process of reapportionment of district lines which comes as a result of a rule where every district must contain the same number of voters. So thus, movements in the state’s population mean that states must redraw district boundaries and lines. Gerrymandering, as a result, is the manipulation of district lines for political advantage of one party or class.
Prominently, here in the U.S. there is both partisan gerrymandering and racial gerrymandering. When participating in partisan gerrymandering, the dominant party in the state comes up with the district lines to give the edge to their current incumbents and to grab as many potential future seats as possible.
That means, in the U.S.-representation-for-all election system (cue eagles now), Democrats have the ability to eliminate a previous district where Republicans had a majority of the vote and instead make two new districts, splitting up the conservative vote. Now the conservatives now have only half the percent of voters in each, giving the edge to the Democrats. That process is known as “cracking."
Another strategy of gerrymandering that makes our forefathers turn over in their respective graves is known as “packing." This is a strategy where an opposing party will draw lines in order concentrate as many voters of the opposing party as possible into one district; that gives the opposing party only the chance to win one seat, where if they were spread around in other districts, they would have a greater chance of winning more seats.
According to an article done by Freedom House, many of today’s legislative districts, especially in the House of Representatives, do not contain communities, but instead conglomerates of groups of people who have the same color of skin, same level of wealth, same political agendas, same sort of jobs, and similar voting habits.
Racial gerrymandering is the forming of prominently minority districts throughout a state, usually used when the dominate party in the state are the Democrats. While it has made it easier for minorities to win political seats in the house, it comes with its consequences. According to the Wall Street Journal, too many black voters have been packed into a handful of districts, which means a dilution of black voters elsewhere. The fear is that the creation of majority black districts has steered U.S. democracy toward a trend of ghettoized politics and racial demagogy.
According to a professor of political science at Mount Holyoke, some states like California, Texas, Kentucky and Indiana have become infamous for gerrymandering. For example, gerrymandering has become so ridiculous that state Democrats in California designed a district for an incumbent that had 385 sides. Just check out this map of Congressional District 12 in North Carolina.
It is obvious that the existence of gerrymandering is hurting the democratic integrity of the U.S. election process. The elimination of this outdated process will reduce the presence of extremes in the U.S. democratic system and move overall U.S. democracy in the right direction. It won’t fix everything such as the Electoral College and influence of dark money, but given the state of the election process today, anything will be a major improvement.
Reach the columnist at ndsmit12@asu.edu or follow @noahsmith1996 on Twitter.
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Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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