Drawing the Line with Gerrymandering

“The right to vote is the right from which all other rights ultimately flow,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said as states prepared to redraw districts based on the delayed release of 2020 Census data. “Discriminatory redistricting schemes or election practices threaten that fundamental right and are illegal.” Every ten years, states must engage in redistricting to draw maps that account for changes in population and create relatively equal populations in each district. But this process can harm democracy if politicians use redistricting to skew political representation by gerrymandering, which is why the process has been regulated since the imposition of the Voting Rights Act. Gerrymandering is the process public officials use to define the boundaries of a district to maximize the seats for a particular political party or to limit the likelihood of people of color getting elected. Legislators can gerrymander by either “packing” or “cracking.” They can pack districts by collecting a group of voters into them, so that the group in power can win more of the surrounding districts. Alternatively, cracking involves dividing a group of voters among different districts to dilute their voting power and prevent them from determining the winner of those districts. Gerrymandering to dilute the voting power of marginalized communities violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which Congress passed to enforce the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and counter racial discrimination in voting. In this week’s Saturday Seminar, scholars examine issues with partisan and racial redistricting, as well as potential regulatory avenues for reform