Gerrymandering Reform

It’s hard to believe that gerrymandering has been around since the early years of our country, but it has.  Gerrymandering is the strategic splitting up of districts, no matter how wonky the shape may be, in an effort to ensure that party members win their elections.  As long as politicians are drawing up their own districts, they win time and time again with little competition.  Some of the bizarre-looking district lines not only make a person cock their head to the side, but it seems to be indicative of a blatant skewing of our democracy.  When politicians are able to create these safe zones, power is taken away from the people.  With gerrymandering in place, politicians are not as accountable as they otherwise might be.  The most egregious offender appears to be North Carolina with its 12^th district being drawn in a way that is 120 miles long but only 20 miles wide at its widest point.

If districts were drawn up by an independent agency, it would allow for more accurate representation and help to build trust within the political system.  Arizona and California are currently the only two with an independent redistricting commission.  The rest of the country should follow their lead. There is a clear conflict of interest for the group of people redrawing the district lines to be the same group who will be running for reelection under those lines.

Even James Madison, a founding father of the Constitution, was targeted by opponents when redrawing district lines in an attempt to prevent Madison from getting reelected to the House of Representatives.  Luckily for Madison it didn’t work, but it did cause Madison to be wary of elected officials manipulating the system to draw lines for their own benefit.

In the article “No More Gerrymandering” from the The Harvard Crimson, Christina Teodorescu summed up gerrymandering quite well by stating, "At its core, it is effectively a form of disenfranchisement.  Thousands if not millions of voters are packed into strategic districts in such a way that in each election cycle their votes are rendered obsolete.  Among its many other undemocratic effects, gerrymandering gives a decisive advantage to incumbents and increases partisan polarity:  Representatives who do not have to worry about reelection are far less motivated to negotiate or work with the opposition to enact constructive legislation."

The result of gerrymandering is that “representation” does not in fact properly represent the citizens.  While it may not be the cause of gridlock in Congress, it certainly exacerbates the extreme polarity.  A neutral independent commission is the best body of people to be drawing up district lines in order to ensure that the voters end up choosing their representatives, not the other way around.