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Gerrymandering and the Art of Reelection

According to Michael C. Munger on the podcast "Econtalk", the number one topic on all politicians mind will always be reelection, how to win over the most amount of people to sway the electoral college in their favor come next election cycle. In the American political system, the electoral college decides the fate of politicians. Representative districts try to hold an equal amount of people for what the designers intended to be equal representation. However, this ideal equal representation has been tossed out in favor of the pure from of partisan politics, redrawing districts.
This art form was created by Governor of Massachusetts Elbridge Gerry, who in 1812 redrew a district that would favor him in an upcoming election. The district seemed to resemble a mythical salamander and through the power of portmanteau, the term Gerrymandering was born. However funny the name my be, Governor Gerry set a dangerous precedent that would heavily influence elections on the federal level. 
This info graphic explains how in a popular election blue would win over red, with 60% of voters in favor. However, through equal population districts, red is able to morph districts to give an advantage, effectively changing the popular vote. This is how it works on the federal level as well, but with not nearly as well defined blocks. With the information given by the U.S Census every 10 years, lawmakers are able to build districts in massive game of partisan chess, sacrificing one or two districts to gain a foothold in a region that has a population of split voters. To the normal citizen, this process can make voting feel useless, as in more than one occasion the popular vote completely disagrees with the electoral college.
Today we see the most gerrymandered districts of our time, enough to make an entire alphabet out of strangely shaped districts that disenfranchise voters. This disenfranchisement can disproportionately affect minority groups, as they might be in a gerrymandered district to suppress their voter numbers in an opposite voting state. Many add this knowledge to the list of reasons not to vote, as it can feel worthless to vote in a district that is gerrymandered to vote the opposite way even if the neighbors live in a different district that is more evenly proportioned.
Voting is the backbone of freedom in a government, as it allows everyone to have a voice and be on a level playing field with lawmakers and even the President. District misrepresent the peoples wishes in a representative democracy and with it the most important freedom many American citizens have.

Comments

  1. Bridget MurphySeptember 20, 2019 at 10:41 AM

    I think your first image showing how to steal an election perfectly embodies this topic, and I completely agree that political gerrymandering has a real and dangerous affect on political efficacy. What is especially disappointing to me is the route our highest court has decided to take. Earlier this summer on June 27th the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that federal courts do not have the authority to consider cases that challenge partisan gerrymandering. Chief Justice Roberts said the Founders knew politics would be a factor in drawing election districts when they delegated that power to state legislatures. I personally believe these practices, committed by both parties, are undemocratic and therefore our elections are not free nor fair.

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  2. Eddy BaisleySeptember 24, 2019 at 12:43 PM

    Brennan, I appreciate the clarity and conciseness of your post. To me, Gerrymandering kind of seems like one of those ambiguous political strategies that is employed by the political elite in an attempt to grapple on to their power for as long as they possibly can. I would have to agree that this process of Gerrymandering that you so nicely laid does contribute to voter disenfranchisement. I was discussing with another classmate of ours about how the electoral college also heavily contributes to the issue of voter disenfranchisement, which was interesting because I didn't take into account how much Gerrymandering also contributes to this issue. Older generations seem to condemn our generation for not being politically active and not exercising our right vote as much as we should, but when you take into account the crappy political institutions that we have inherited from the older generations it isn't so much of mystery as to why we feel disenfranchised. With that being said, this is another issue that I think the Supreme Court of the United State got terribly wrong. In my opinion it is counterproductive to democracy to have those who benefit from redistricting being the one who are drawing the lines of those districts. Obviously self motivated politicians are going to attempt to favor themselves every chance they get, so if they can do so by marginalizing certain demographics of people by districting them in certain way then they will do so without hesitation. Thus, if you find yourself in a strategically drawn district you might feel as if it is not even worth your time to vote if you happen to apart of that marginalized demographic

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