Gerrymandering is not exactly a household word. It ought to be; it undermines our democracy.
The cartoon character, Pogo, had it right years ago when he said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
Volume I of the Mueller Report details the alarming extent of Russian interference in our electoral process. The meddling has yet to be addressed with the full attention it deserves, making it all but inevitable it will happen again in the 2020 presidential election.
In the meantime, back to Pogo, the enemy is us. As if Russian electoral sabotage is not bad enough, partisan termites are at work, eating at the electoral process. There are widespread attempts at voter suppression, such as moving voting polls far from towns to make them inconvenient to prospective voters, the purging of eligible voters from rolls based on specious reasons, limiting early-voting opportunities; placing onerous requirements on the processes of voting registration so prospective voters have to jump through hoops and hurdles (all supposedly because of “voting fraud,” which is virtually nonexistent) and the Electoral College way of granting votes (a needless relic of the past in which the one who gets the most popular votes can lose, as did Hillary and Al Gore). And last, but certainly not least, is gerrymandering.
Every 10 years, based on census results, all political boundary lines in the United States must be redrawn to reflect shifts in population within each state. The process is supposed to make it so there are about the same number of people (about 711,000) in each of a state’s congressional districts – the ones from which representatives to the U.S. Congress are elected.
Gerrymandering is a form of cheating. It’s drawing the boundary lines in a skewed way so a district contains far more Republicans (or Democrats), thus almost guaranteeing a partisan slant come election time. It is, in brief, a way to consolidate party power in election after election. One party, one rule.
In most states, the party in power in a state’s legislature is the one that gets to draw the boundary lines. In the past 10 years, Republicans have controlled most state legislatures, and gerrymandering has been rampant, thus favoring their chances to win repeatedly.
Gerrymandering has been challenged in the courts many times in many states, and so the tug of war goes on. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 opinion, decided to take a hands-off approach to challenges to gerrymandering in federal courts. In her dissenting opinion, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan issued a red-light warning about the Court’s short-sighted decision.
“The practices challenged in these cases,” she wrote, “imperil our system of government. Part of the Court’s role in that system is to defend its foundations. None is more important than free and fair elections.”
North Carolina and Texas, to name just two, are notorious for gerrymandered districts that favor Republicans, though to be sure both parties have indulged in the process throughout history. The many devious tactics used by gerrymanderers are as crooked as stealing ballots from a ballot box, a crude violation of the one person, one vote principle.
The odd name, gerrymandering, was named after a ridiculously odd-shaped legislative district in Massachusetts in 1812. That state’s governor, Elbridge Gerry, signed a bill into law to create an outrageously partisan district near Boston. The boundary lines were so torturously skewed a newspaper at the time noted the new district resembled the shape of a salamander – thus gerry- (after Gov. Gerry) and – mander (from salamander).
Some states wisely have commissions do the redistricting — commissions that range from non-partisan to bi-partisan. A few others appoint independent commissions of experts to do the job.
The vast majority of states (37), however, (including Minnesota), persist in letting the party in control draw the lines.
Someday, let us hope, all citizens and legislators will see the light and demand independent commissions draw the lines in every state.
Meantime, sad to say, the 2020 election will likely be the most contentious in American history what with Russian meddling, voter suppression and – yes – gerrymandering.
When voters lose faith in the integrity of the electoral process, democracy –the very foundation of our country – can erode very quickly.
