Gerrymandering is defined as “an occasion when someone in authority changes the borders of an area in order to increase the number of people within that area who will vote for a particular party or person” by Cambridge Dictionary.  To make things clear, gerrymandering is not a partisan issue.  Both sides of the aisle do it.  And, no matter which party is at fault in a particular area, gerrymandering results in only one thing: the upheaval of legitimate democracy.  By affecting the representation of different areas, gerrymandering alters who is elected into office and consequentially, what laws will end up passing.  Both of these sends ripples through the American government that are not representative of the true beliefs and intentions of that segment of the population.  In essence, gerrymandering kills democratic processes.

The above image quite simply and effectively shows how gerrymandering works.  By redrawing district lines, a minority group (in this case blue, at forty percent), is able to win over the majority group (red, at sixty percent).  Different shaping of districts can produce various outcomes.  Although the first and second district breakdowns both have blue winning, the compact model eliminates all red districts, which is arguably less democratic, as there is no representation of a group at all.  This second model is a perfect example of how gerrymandering can prevent an opposition from gaining any representation by keeping minority groups separated.  Contrariwise, the third model exemplifies how a minority group can use gerrymandering to overcome the majority through confusing and branching districts.  Of these two methods of gerrymandering, the latter is by far more common in American politics.  The Washington Post offers a much more in-depth article on how gerrymandering works here.  Many of the students here at Penn State are probably from congressional districts that are gerrymandered, especially those coming from Pennsylvania itself.

No students would know this better than those of Pennsylvania’s seventh congressional district, known unaffectionately as the “Goofy Kicking Donald” district, on account of its rather familiar-looking shape (as can be seen below).  When I did research on American gerrymandering during high school, I was appalled to find that such a misshapen and messy district could exist.  You can imagine my feeling of dread when I found out that this was not just any district, but my own home district.  While its shape is quite obviously not reasonable, the ridiculousness of it really hit home when I noticed the small, one square mile cut-away in the district.  That one square mile? It is none other than my town of Kennett Square.  A majority of the school district lies in the seventh congressional district, while the town and a small portion of the school body falls under the sixteenth congressional district, which primarily consists of Lancaster County, an area approximately an hour’s drive away.  Such district mapping is a clear and evident case of gerrymandering, yet nothing can be done of this.

The “Goofy Kicking Donald” district a.k.a. PA’s 7th Congressional District, from nationalatlas.gov.

Although the Supreme Court has previously ruled against racial gerrymandering, a three judge trial court in North Carolina has determined that Republican gerrymandering of the state has violated the Fourteenth Amendment, and as such, a new congressional voting district map must be drawn up by January 24.  But, the Supreme Court has issued a stay on this court order while it decides on similar cases from Wisconsin and Maryland.  Due to the nature of how gerrymandering benefits both the left and the right, it is extremely unlikely that either party is going to bring forth legislature that will bring an end to the practice.  As such, the only hope for the death of gerrymandering lies with the Supreme Court, but if this court stay is any indication, the highest court in the land is unlikely to decide in favor of eliminating partisan gerrymandering.

In the next couple of months, a decision in favor of ending gerrymandering by the Supreme Court will have several affects. Number one: it will pave the way for plenty of redistricting across the United States, resulting in vastly different districts in some areas.  Number two: those new districts will widely benefit the Democratic Party in many areas, which will have a massive effect on midterm elections this year, changing the dynamics of Congress.  Such changes to the American political system would have cloudy results past those points, so only time will tell.

Overall, the use of gerrymandering is quite obvious and undemocratic.  You would need to be blind to not see it.  Different people in areas across the United States are underrepresented.  It doesn’t matter to what party you belong, gerrmandering’s effects are detrimental to democracy. Yes, gerrymandering may help out your party in some instances, but is it worth the cost?  Uprooting the tree of liberty for the purpose of petty partisan politics?  I vote no.