Lawmakers often try to draw lines in a manner most favorable to their party, a process known as gerrymandering. Gerrymandering occurs when district lines are deliberately manipulated to benefit one party over another. Federal law prohibits racial gerrymandering, in which minority communities are intentionally disadvantaged, but partisan gerrymandering, in which lines are altered based on how residents voted, is permitted.
The U. Supreme Court ruled in that federal judges have no jurisdiction over partisan gerrymandering, though the decision does not prevent state courts from weighing in. Both the Pennsylvania and North Carolina state Supreme Courts have found extreme partisan gerrymandering violates their state constitutions. That has allowed Republicans in Wisconsin, for example, to maintain an iron grip on the legislature, even as Democrats have won statewide races.
After Democrats failed to make major gains in November at the statehouse level, Republicans will have sole power to draw the lines for seats in the seat U. Some experts say Republicans could use redistricting alone to flip the half-dozen House seats needed to regain control of the chamber from Democrats in the congressional elections. Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania alone — the three states with the worst gerrymanders in the last redistricting cycle — accounted for 7 to 10 extra Republican seats in the House.
On the state level, gerrymandering has also led to significant partisan bias in maps. For example, in , Democrats in Wisconsin won every statewide office and a majority of the statewide vote, but thanks to gerrymandering, won only 36 of the 99 seats in the state assembly. Regardless of which party is responsible for gerrymandering, it is ultimately the public who loses out. Residential segregation and racially polarized voting patterns, especially in southern states, mean that targeting communities of color can be an effective tool for creating advantages for the party that controls redistricting.
This is true regardless of whether it is Democrats or Republicans drawing the maps. Common Cause greenlighting partisan gerrymandering has made things worse. The Voting Rights Act and the Constitution prohibit racial discrimination in redistricting. But because there often is correlation between party preference and race, Rucho opens the door for Republican-controlled states to defend racially discriminatory maps on grounds that they were permissibly discriminating against Democrats rather than impermissibly discriminating against Black, Latino, or Asian voters.
Targeting the political power of communities of color is also often a key element of partisan gerrymandering. This is especially the case in the South, where white Democrats are a comparatively small part of the electorate and often live, problematically from the standpoint of a gerrymanderer, very close to white Republicans. Even with slicing and dicing, discriminating against white Democrats only moves the political dial so much.
Because of residential segregation, it is much easier for map drawers to pack or crack communities of color to achieve maximum political advantage. Gerrymandering is a political tactic nearly as old as the United States. But gerrymandering has also changed dramatically since the founding: today, intricate computer algorithms and sophisticated data about voters allow map drawers to game redistricting on a massive scale with surgical precision.
The goal of these was usually to concentrate as many Black voters as possible into one district so that the rest of the districts would have a white majority.
In , South Carolina introduced the first non-contiguous voting district, but had to change back to contiguous districts for the election because the U. Gerrymandering in the south fell off in the early 20th century due to the success of suppressing Black voters through poll taxes, the threat of lynching and other insidious tactics.
As more people moved to cities—particularly Black Americans and immigrants—these states maintained districts that gave disproportionate power to white, rural, non-immigrant Americans. The U. In addition, states must adjust their federal congressional districts after every year census so that each of the members in the U.
ET : A previous version of this article misstated the number of seats Democrats in North Carolina need to gain to take control of the legislature. It is at least four in the state Senate and six in the House; not eight in the Senate and 11 in the House. Jane C. Timm is a senior reporter for NBC News. IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Politics Covid U. News World Opinion Business.
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