Gerrymandering

Boundaries drawn to apportion five "districts" result in varying color majorities, including no yellow and 5 blue (top left), 3 yellow and 2 blue (top right), and 2 yellow and 3 blue (lower examples matching "voter" proportions).

In representative electoral systems, gerrymandering (/ˈɛrimændərɪŋ/ JERR-ee-man-dər-ing, originally /ˈɡɛrimændərɪŋ/ GHERR-ee-man-dər-ing)[1][2] is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries to advantage a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The manipulation may involve "cracking" (diluting the voting power of the opposing party's supporters across many districts) or "packing" (concentrating the opposing party's voting power in one district to reduce their voting power in other districts).[3] Gerrymandering can also be used to protect incumbents. Wayne Dawkins, a professor at Morgan State University, describes it as politicians picking their voters instead of voters picking their politicians.[4]

The term gerrymandering is a portmanteau of a salamander and Elbridge Gerry,[a][5] Vice President of the United States at the time of his death, who, as governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area that was compared to the shape of a mythological salamander. The term has negative connotations, and gerrymandering is almost always considered a corruption of the democratic process. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander (/ˈɛriˌmændər, ˈɡɛri-/). The word is also a verb for the process.[6][7]

  1. ^ "Gerrymandering Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster". 15 June 2023.
  2. ^ Wells, John (3 April 2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
  3. ^ "The ReDistricting Game". USC Annenberg's Media Center. Archived from the original on 4 December 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  4. ^ Dawkins, Wayne (9 October 2014). "In America, voters don't pick their politicians. Politicians pick their voters". The Guardian.
  5. ^ "Ask Cokie: Is Gerrymandering Rigging America's Political System?". NPR Morning Edition. 11 October 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  6. ^ Elster, Charles (2005). The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 224. ISBN 9780618423156. OCLC 317828351.
  7. ^ "gerrymander". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins.


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