Gerrymandering

NARRATOR: So, you want to know what gerrymandering is? First, let's start with Government 101. In the United States, each state elects a certain number of representatives based on the state's population. The larger your population, the more representatives you have.

Each representative represents a district or a geographical area, including its voters. Ideally, we want to have a range of representatives who reflect the political views of the population across the state.

But how do we decide who gets to vote for each representative?

Let's look at an example. Suppose we have a very tiny state of 50 people. Thirty of them belong to the blue party, and 20 belong to the red party. And just our luck, they all live in a nice, even grid, with blues on one side of the stateand reds on the other.

Now, let's say we need to divide the state into five districts. Each district will send one representative to the House to represent the people.

Fortunately, because our citizens live in a neatly ordered grid, it's easy to draw five lengthy districts--two for the reds and three for the blues.

Voila, perfectly proportional representation, just as the founders intended.

Now, let's say instead that the blue party controls the state government, and they get to decide how the lines are drawn. Rather than draw districts horizontally, they draw them vertically, so that in each district there are six blues and four reds. With a comfortable blue majority in the state, each district elects a blue candidate to the House.

The blues win five seats, and the reds don't get a single one. Oh, well.

Finally, what if the red party controls the state government?

The reds know they're at a numerical disadvantage, but with some creative boundary drawing, they can slice the blue population up such that they only get a majority in two districts. So despite making up 40% of the population, the reds win 60% of the seats.

Not bad.

This process of redrawing district lines to give an advantage to one party over another is called gerrymandering,and it's nothing new.

The term "gerrymander" is named after early 19th century Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry, who redrew the map of the Senate's districts in 1810 in order to weaken the opposing Federalist Party.

Our example is, of course, a huge simplification. In the real world, people don't live in neatly ordered grids sorted by a political party.

But for politicians looking to give themselves an advantage at redistricting time, the process is exactly the same, and the consequences are very real.

Gerrymandering is at least partly to blame for lopsided representation in the House seen in recent elections<meta charset="utf-8">—and, it's been argued by the president<meta charset="utf-8">—for political polarization, since representatives don't have to compromise hardline views in order to win seats.