Gerrymandering is a Feature Not a Bug

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Would you be surprised to learn that every single congressional district in the United States is, by definition, gerrymandered? Both political parties do it and it is a feature and not a bug. I contend that political gerrymandering isn’t as big of an issue as ‘personal’ gerrymandering is.

The dictionary defines gerrymandering as "to manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class." Obviously, racial gerrymandering is both wrong and largely illegal but what about partisan gerrymandering? The Supreme Court ruled that "partisan redistricting is a political question — not reviewable by federal courts — and that those courts can't judge if extreme gerrymandering violates the Constitution."

My concern is that incumbents (from both parties) are using gerrymandering for their own personal gain - drawing districts in such a way to protect their congressional seats regardless of how it impacts their political party as a whole.

Historically, some states used gerrymandering to ensure political control by one race over another. In fact, nine states are or have been under a DOJ consent decree based on prior class-based districting. Currently, parts of Florida, California, New York, North Carolina, South Dakota, Michigan, and New Hampshire are under a consent decree. With the exception of these states, no other state can use race as an input to draw congressional districts. That being said the courts have made it very clear that districting is a political activity and partisan redistricting or 'partisan gerrymandering' is both perfectly legal and expected. For example, Maryland's Democratically-controlled legislature is credited with creating the single most gerrymandered district in the nation - Maryland's 3rd.

Maryland is the shamefaced owner of the single worst gerrymander in the nation. The 3rd District mangles the central part of the state as it snakes its way northeast from Annapolis, then west, again eastward, and one more time northwest(ish) until it's close to the top of the state — passing in and out (and sometimes back in again) of four counties and Baltimore City. The district has been characterized by a federal judge as a "broken-winged pterodactyl lying prostrate across the state" and also likened to "blood spatter at a crime scene." With such a sprawl, it can be difficult for some communities to access their House member. At the League of Women Voters, we saw this when we sought to arrange an election forum in a district with a border 225 miles long; no one place was easily accessible to all the voters in the district.

Today both political parties have software that uses AI to draw districts that optimize the state's districts for their party while keeping the districts uniform and compact. For example, here in Texas if the GOP used any of the available software platforms they would have achieved TWO major advantages. First, they would gain eight additional seats in congress (a huge swing for the GOP). Second, they could provide rock-solid evidence to the DOJ that race was NOT considered in the drawing of the districts. Texas is no longer subject to the DOJ's consent decree and is free to draw districts as it likes as long as it doesn't use race as a basis for the effort. The Biden administration is still suing Texas even though their redistricting will only result in a gain of two or three seats in the house claiming racial bias. If the GOP used the AI redistricting software they would gain eight seats and be able to get the court to dismiss the DOJ's case. Here is a good video explaining how the software works.

Sadly, GOP incumbents would rather keep their jobs than add eight additional Republican districts. Of course, the Democrats are guilty of personal gerrymandering as well.

Here is the state of play halfway through 2022’s redistricting:

New York's highest court blocks Democratic-drawn congressional map over gerrymandering

State Court Rejects Kansas Congressional Map as a Gerrymander

Democrats gerrymandered more effectively than Republicans this cycle

DeSantis signs new congressional map into law as groups sue over redistricting