"Normal" Pizza: 8 Ingredients, 50% chance of getting peppers or pepperoni on each slice.
"Cracked & Packed" Pizza: 8 ingredients, 4 districts guaranteed to be pepper, only 1 district for pepperoni
GERRYMANDERING
When politicians decide who votes, the people lose.
In America, we believe that the people pick the politicians, not the other way around. However, with gerrymandering, politicians redraw the lines of who can and cannot vote for them - and that makes politicians pick more partisan voters, advance more partisan policies, and enables them to stay in office regardless of what their voters want.
HISTORY OF GERRYMANDERING
Congressional districts are the way we determine which voters get to vote for which representatives. Have you ever looked at a map of congressional districts for your state? You can do so here. Where you’d think that each “district” is made to be even squares, you’ll see that the districts are wildly misshapen - some hugging the edge of your state, some centered around the middle, and some that might cross the entire state from one side to another.
NORTH CAROLINA GERRYMANDERING EXAMPLE
This is a North Carolina District Map from 2023 that changed the state from a dead even - 7 GOP seats and 7 Democratic seats - to 10 Republican and 4 Democratic seats.
WHAT IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE VS. WHAT IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE
This practice of drawing ridiculous districts is called “Gerrymandering” after a Massachusetts governor, Elbridge Gerry, who, in order to ensure his re-election, drew a district the shape of a salamander. But these districts are more than just ridiculous. They keep politicians in power by allowing them to choose their voters.
HOW GERRYMANDERING WORKS
Every ten years, after the census, states redraw their voting districts in a process called redistricting. During this process, the politicians of whatever party is in power redraw their districts. They often draw this map to ensure they stay in power - regardless of what voters want.
They do this by “cracking”, or breaking up strong groups of voters into smaller ones, and *packing* or cramming opposition voters into small districts. Both ensure no third party can gain a foothold.
Look at this pizza, with the same 8 ingredients, and see how it gets “gerrymandered” into a win for green pepper.
IMPACT OF GERRYMANDERING
Gerrymandering ensures that your vote rarely counts - by always making sure there are more opposition voters than voters of your party. In fact, over 62 million people, one-third of all voters, never count because they have been moved into safe districts for the opposition. Out of 435 members of congress, 385 of them have been placed into “safe” districts. If you’re in the opposition party, your party cannot win, and you cannot be represented.
Gerrymandering makes us more partisan. By removing the moderate voters and opposition from every district, the representatives of that district get more and more extreme and push their voters in that direction too.
Gerrymandering allows politicians to win elections who wouldn’t - By moving voters into districts that benefit the party in power, gerrymandering empowers politicians - and parties, to win more seats for their party than they deserve, ensuring that no matter how bad they are, voters cannot “vote the bums out.”
OUR SOLUTION
Many different attempts have been made to address gerrymandering so far - but the one that works the best? Independent citizens commissions. By having a group of nonpartisan citizens, selected by a lottery, districts can be randomized in a way that makes it very challenging - if not impossible - for politicians to rig the game board in their favor. In fact, according to a 2023 study, independent redistricting commissions were 2.3x more likely to produce competitive elections. Ensuring the voters pick the politicians, and not the other way around.
YES
I believe people should decide who their politicians are, not the other way around. I support efforts to draw fair district lines, increase representation, and ensure the best candidate has a shot at winning.
