When politicians pick their voters instead of voters picking their politicians
In short: In many representative systems, the outcome of an election is decided long before a single ballot is cast. Through the strategic manipulation of electoral district boundaries, political parties can effectively engineer their own victories, creating bizarrely shaped districts that favor specific groups while diluting the influence of their opponents.
Gerrymandering involves adjusting electoral district borders politically to benefit a particular group, party, or socioeconomic class. This process often occurs during Census years when voting districts are redrawn. While often viewed as a corruption of the democratic process, it is not always purely the result of intentional political scheming; it can also reflect existing demographic trends, such as the tendency for Democrats to reside in urban areas.
Strategists typically employ two primary mechanisms to achieve these skewed outcomes: "packing" and "cracking." Packing involves concentrating the opposing party's supporters into a single district to minimize their influence elsewhere. Cracking, conversely, dilutes the opposing party's voting power by spreading their supporters across many different districts so they cannot form a majority in any of them. These tactics can also be used to protect incumbents from competition.
The term itself is a portmanteau that originated in 1812. While the exact creator remains a matter of historical debate, many believe the term was coined by Federalist newspaper editors Nathan Hale and the Russell brothers. It was born in response to a Massachusetts Senate redistricting signed by Governor Elbridge Gerry. One of the resulting districts in the Boston area was so contorted that a political cartoon depicted it as a strange creature with claws, wings, and a dragon-like head, resembling a salamander.
The impact of these maps can be profound. In the 1812 Massachusetts elections, despite the Federalists winning the governorship and the House, the redistricting efforts successfully kept the state senate in the hands of Gerry's Democratic-Republican Party.
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Sources
- Source: CrashCourse — Gerrymandering: Crash Course Government and Politics #37 · YouTube (embedded player only)
- Also: Gerrymandering
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