Currently we have 435 members in The House Of Representatives.
Each one comes from a district containing about 600,000 people. States
are assigned their number of representatives based on population as
reported
by the 10 year census. Because states gain or lose representatives
because of the gain or loss of people and because of population shifts
within the state, the districts must be redrawn by the state government
(usually the state legislature). Whichever party is in power will
often attempt to draw the districts in such a way as to gain as many
potential
seats for its party as possible. This often results in districts
which have very strange shapes. The current efforts to do this in
Texas and Colorado by the Republican Party are not new. Democrats
have done this over the years just as the Republicans. The term
“Gerrymandering”
comes from a political cartoon in 1812. It made fun of Massachusetts
governor Elbridge Gerry who drew congressional districts that looked a
little like a salamander and were dubbed “Gerrymanders” by the
cartoonist.
HERE IS HOW IT WORKS
Imagine that this fictitious state is made up of neighborhoods which (like most of ours today) are loyal to certain political parties. In this case we will call the two parties Reds and Blues.
Our mythical state is equally divided between the two parties and has been assigned eight representatives. Each block on the map contains roughly the same population. You would think that it makes the most sense to keep the districts geographically organized. Each district would then be more likely to be served by the same news media and would be most likely to share many concerns. It would be logical to expect the districts to be drawn something like this
Notice that Red is likely to win 3 districts (E, F & H). Blue also is likely to win 3 (A, B & G). The remaining two districts (C & D) are evenly balanced. This is an ideal situation. In real life there will be variations but as long as the decision is based on cultural and geographic interests and not political maneuvering for unfair advantage, the nation will be served.
NOW NOTICE WHAT HAPPENS IF RED IS ALLOWED TO DRAW THE DISTRICTS:
Even
though half the people in the state are supporters of the Blue
Party, they will be likely to win only two of the eight seats in
Congress.
Red
wins the rest. Here is a better view of what these districts will
look like:
When Blue
gets back in
power you can bet the new districts will look like this:
Here is a better view of the redistricting
which will
result in Red receiving only two likely seats despite having half of
the
population. Blue is likely to win the other six seats!
The way the Congress is organized, the party in the minority has little or no say in what happens. In the case of Gerrymandered results, as many as half of the people in the country can be without a voice in lawmaking.
These examples are not that far fetched.
Both
parties engage in this and other unfair practices. We could
dismiss it as silliness except that it results in a breakdown of our
democratic
tradition. The whole concept further illustrates the follies that
result from having professional politicians influenced by high ticket
lobbyists
driving elections with their contributions.