What is Gerrymandering?

Gerrymandering is a process that has been around for over 200 years, and is known as a political manipulation of the electoral district boundaries in order to create an advantage for a party or group when it comes to voting for the House of Representatives. This congressional map is redrawn each decade, following the state census. This has given the Republican party the upper hand since 2010, as they successfully redrew lines to their advantage in both 2010 and 2020. Although recently, a few legal cases have forced parties to change their methods and create more evenly drawn electoral districts.

This shift in gerrymandering has caused votes to change, and so far, has brought a slight advantage to the Democratic party. This has caused debate in several areas, as many believe that the districts should have remained the same as they were in 2020, and were “unfairly altered.” While others suggest that the original district lines were prejudiced to begin with.

What Does This Mean?

Once this shift is put into effect, it is believed that there will be a drastic change in future elections, and in turn, the House of Congress overall. In past years, the Republican party has been vastly more successful in gerrymandering, and has gained noticeable benefits because of that. As of now, the Democratic party only needs to fill a couple of seats in order to gain a majority in the House. Because of this shift, many leaders of the party have been enthusiastic about possibly gaining the upper hand in the next election.

Cites

nytimes.com