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The Pros And Cons Of Gerrymandering

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Gerrymandering Gerrymandering is the redrawing of political boundaries, otherwise known as district lines, in a state to give one party a numeric advantage over the opposing party. This is done by dividing districts up into highly irregular sections to achieve the goal of having voters from a particular party highly concentrated in some areas and thinly scattered in other areas (Donnelly, Fortune). Gerrymandering has been criticized because it violates the two basic principles in electoral designation; compactness and equality of size of constituencies in electoral designation (The Editors, Britannica). There is currently no law against the process of Gerrymandering. However, the current Supreme Court case Gill v. Whitford could change that. …show more content…

State Legislature gerrymanders in 37 states and the elected state lawmakers are responsible for drawing their own legislative districts and the boundaries for the congressional districts in their states. The governors in most of those states have the authority to veto the plans(Murse, ThoughtCo). In Independent Commissions, panels are used in six states to redraw legislative districts. They keep politics and the potential for gerrymandering out of the process because they are apolitical(Murse, ThoughtCo). State lawmakers and public officials are prohibited from serving on the commissions. Some states also prohibit legislative staffers and lobbyists, as well. Seven states use Political Commissions with panels made up of state lawmakers and other elected officials to redraw their own legislative boundaries. Even though these states take redistricting out of the hands of the entire legislature, the process is highly political, or partisan, and often results in gerrymandering districts (Murse, …show more content…

"The core technique is to jam voters likely to favor your opponents into a few throwaway districts where the other side will win lopsided victories, a strategy known as 'packing.' Arrange other boundaries to win close victories, 'cracking' opposition groups into many districts."(Murse). Packing and Cracking are the two main tactics for gerrymandering. Packing is when the opposing party’s members are grouped into a single district. This ensures that the opposing party will win that particular district, but the other party will will all of the other districts. Cracking is when the opposing party’s voters are broken up and scattered throughout districts to make them the minority in each district. Both methods are effective in preventing the opposing party from winning any of the electoral

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If more districts means more votes, the fewer the districts there are, and the fewer votes the opposition will have. Thus, packing then decreases the opponents’ voter strength and influence. Therefore, packing a district helps the party more likely to win an election because they are gaining majority of the districts. The cracking a district is quite the opposite. It is only used when the opponent of a district has many supporters, and the party has to figure out how to “crack” a district, so they can win more votes (Greer 1).

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It allows them to use tactics such as packing and cracking which can have a tremendous impact on elections. Packing is when politicians draw out district maps for each party based on population. Packing can swing the vote because the population of one party could out weight the population of the minority party within the same district, causing the entire district to swing with the majority. Voters feel that the other tactic, cracking, gives them a disadvantage because the political parties are being spread out between multiple districts which causes one district to have the majority party in multiple areas (King, Elizabeth). When the politicians of the party in power have drawn out the voters’ map, they maintain power over the lines of the map.

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