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Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is the strategic manipulation of electoral district boundaries to favor one political party, incumbent, or demographic group over competitors, often by concentrating or diluting voters through techniques such as packing (concentrating opposing voters into few districts) and cracking (spreading them thinly across many).^[1]^[2] The term derives from 1812, when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting bill creating a serpentine district in Essex County resembling a salamander, which the Boston Gazette mockingly labeled a "Gerry-mander" to criticize the partisan ploy by his Republican-Federalist rivals.^[2]^[3] This practice, rooted in the decennial census-driven redistricting mandated by the U.S. Constitution's apportionment clause, allows the party controlling state legislatures to entrench power by minimizing competitive districts, as evidenced by reduced electoral margins and increased incumbency rates post-redistricting cycles.^[4] Empirical analyses indicate that while gerrymandering distorts local seat-vote proportionality—favoring the map-drawers—it largely cancels out nationally across states, limiting systemic partisan dominance but exacerbating polarization and policy gridlock through safer seats.^[5]^[6] Both Democrats and Republicans have employed gerrymandering historically and in recent cycles, with data from the 2010 and 2020 redistricts showing targeted cracking and packing by whichever party held legislative majorities, though measurable efficiency gaps (wasted votes) reveal varying effectiveness without consistent one-sided advantage.^[7]^[8] Controversies center on its erosion of voter accountability and democratic legitimacy, yet the U.S. Supreme Court in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019) held partisan gerrymandering claims nonjusticiable under federal law, citing the absence of judicially manageable standards and leaving remedies to state constitutions or legislatures.^[9]^[4] Despite independent commissions in some states mitigating extremes, the practice persists, underscoring tensions between partisan self-preservation and equitable representation.^[10]

Fundamentals

Definition and Principles

Gerrymandering denotes the intentional redrawing of electoral district boundaries to advantage a specific political party, incumbent, or demographic group, thereby distorting representational outcomes relative to the underlying distribution of voter preferences.^[1]^[11] This manipulation exploits the flexibility inherent in apportionment processes following decennial censuses, where states redraw lines to reflect population shifts while pursuing partisan gains.^[12] Core principles of equitable districting emphasize adherence to constitutional mandates and traditional criteria designed to promote fair representation. Foremost is the equal population requirement, stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings in Baker v. Carr (1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (1964), which enforce the "one person, one vote" standard under the Equal Protection Clause to ensure districts have substantially equal numbers of inhabitants.^[13] Additional guidelines include contiguity—requiring districts to be physically connected—and compactness, which favors geographically coherent shapes to minimize arbitrary divisions and respect natural boundaries or communities of interest.^[13]^[14] These criteria aim to produce districts that approximate proportional representation of voter ideologies across a jurisdiction, preventing systemic dilution of any group's influence.^[15] Gerrymandering subverts these principles through strategic tactics that prioritize electoral efficiency over geographic or communal logic. In packing, mapmakers concentrate an opposing party's voters into a limited number of districts, creating safe supermajorities that waste surplus votes while ceding minimal seats.^[1]^[16] Conversely, cracking disperses those voters across multiple districts, diluting their strength to below plurality thresholds and enabling the favored party to secure narrow wins in more districts.^[1]^[16] Such methods can yield disproportionate legislative majorities; for example, analysis of U.S. congressional redistricting post-2010 census revealed that partisan bias in state maps contributed to Republicans securing approximately 16 more seats than expected based on statewide vote shares in 2012.^[17] While both major parties have employed these approaches when controlling redistricting, empirical studies indicate varying national net effects due to geographic clustering of voters, underscoring the causal link between boundary manipulation and representational skew.^[17]^[18]

Etymology

The term "gerrymander" emerged in 1812 as a portmanteau of Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry's surname and "salamander," referring to a newly drawn electoral district in Essex County that resembled the amphibian's elongated form.^[19] This district, part of a redistricting plan enacted by the Democratic-Republican-dominated state legislature to consolidate power against Federalist opponents, featured a serpentine boundary snaking along the coastline to concentrate Republican voters while diluting Federalist strength in surrounding areas.^[2]^[3]
Federalist critics, including editors from the Columbian Centinel, first applied the neologism "Gerry-mander" during a Boston meeting where they examined the map and noted its salamander-like contours, attributing the coinage to figures such as painter Gilbert Stuart or printer Nathan Bushee.^[20] The term proliferated following publication of a satirical cartoon on March 26, 1812, in the Centinel, illustrated by Elkanah Tisdale with possible coloring by Stuart, portraying the district as a monstrous "Gerry-Mander" devouring Federalist voters.^[21] Gerry had signed the redistricting bill into law on February 11, 1812, despite personal qualms, thereby associating his name indelibly with the practice.^[3] By mid-1812, "gerrymander" had entered broader political lexicon as both noun and verb denoting manipulative districting for partisan gain.^[19]

Historical Origins

Early American Instances

One of the earliest documented instances of electoral district manipulation in the United States occurred during the 1788 congressional elections in Virginia. Anti-Federalist leaders, including Governor Patrick Henry, sought to prevent Federalist James Madison from securing a seat in the first U.S. Congress by designing districts that combined counties likely to oppose him. Madison was placed in a district encompassing Orange, Culpeper, Spotsylvania, and parts of Fairfax and Prince William counties, pitting him against popular Anti-Federalist James Monroe. Despite this arrangement, Madison campaigned extensively and defeated Monroe by a narrow margin of 1,188 votes to 1,129 on February 28, 1789.^[22]^[23] The practice gained its name from events in Massachusetts in 1812. With the state legislature controlled by Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans, redistricting was undertaken to diminish Federalist influence ahead of state senate elections, following the 1810 census. The new map concentrated Federalist voters in fewer districts while spreading Republican support to secure more seats. One Essex County district was contorted to include only Republican-leaning areas, resembling a salamander in shape. Governor Elbridge Gerry, a Democratic-Republican, signed the bill into law on February 11, 1812, despite personal reservations and after attempting amendments that failed.^[3]^[24]^[25] Federalist critics coined the term "Gerry-mander" to mock the map, blending Gerry's name with "salamander." The phrase first appeared publicly in the March 26, 1812, edition of the Boston Gazette, attributed to editor Benjamin Russell, possibly with input from painter Gilbert Stuart. A cartoon by Elkanah Tisdale, published in the Columbian Centinel, depicted the creature with Gerry's head, amplifying the satire. In the subsequent elections, Republicans won 29 of 40 senate seats despite Federalists receiving a plurality of the statewide vote, demonstrating the plan's effectiveness.^[2]^[21]^[26] These early cases illustrate partisan efforts to manipulate district boundaries for electoral advantage, predating formal constitutional requirements for periodic reapportionment. While the 1788 Virginia effort failed to exclude Madison, who later advocated for the Bill of Rights, the 1812 Massachusetts redistricting succeeded in entrenching Republican control and popularized the tactic nationwide.^[27]

Development in the 19th and 20th Centuries

In the decades following the 1812 Massachusetts redistricting, partisan manipulation of district boundaries became a recurrent feature of American state and congressional politics, with the term "gerrymander" entering widespread use to denounce opponents' efforts to entrench electoral advantages. During the competitive Whig-Democratic era, legislatures frequently adjusted maps mid-decade rather than adhering to decennial census cycles, enabling controlling parties to respond to vote shifts and secure supermajorities. A notable instance occurred in 1878, when Democratic majorities in Ohio and Missouri redrew districts to flip nine competitive congressional seats, preserving their narrow U.S. House control and facilitating the Compromise of 1877, which ended Reconstruction by withdrawing federal troops from the South.^[28] Ohio exemplified this pattern of iterative gerrymandering in the late 19th century, enacting seven redistricting plans between 1878 and 1892 and holding six consecutive congressional elections under distinct maps, allowing Republicans in 1888 to reverse Democratic gains and pass protectionist legislation like the McKinley Tariff.^[28] Federal intervention emerged with the Apportionment Act of 1842, enacted by a Whig Congress to counter Democratic multi-member districts and irregular boundaries; it required single-member congressional districts of contiguous territory and approximately equal population (no more than 50,000 or less than 25,000 inhabitants initially), marking an early standardization aimed at reducing grotesque shapes and vote dilution.^[29] These constraints moderated but did not eliminate partisan tactics, as pack-and-crack strategies adapted to the new rules, sustaining distortions in state legislative and congressional outcomes through the century's end. The 20th century saw gerrymandering practices tempered by legislative inertia, as state assemblies often deferred redistricting after censuses to avoid jeopardizing incumbents or rural majorities amid urbanization and population growth. By the 1930s and 1940s, malapportionment—unequal district populations—had compounded partisan imbalances, with many maps frozen from the 1900 or 1910 censuses, granting disproportionate influence to rural voters who typically supported conservative Democrats in the South and Republicans in the Midwest.^[30] In Tennessee, legislative districts unchanged since 1901 empowered rural areas over growing urban centers like Nashville and Memphis, prompting the 1962 Baker v. Carr challenge that initiated federal judicial oversight.^[30] Illinois similarly retained outdated boundaries into the mid-20th century, diluting representation for Chicago's expanding immigrant and Black populations during the Great Migration, thereby insulating rural-dominated legislatures from urban electoral pressures.^[30] When redistricting did occur pre-1962, it frequently incorporated gerrymandering to reinforce party or incumbent advantages, though documentation is sparser due to the practice's infrequency compared to the 19th century. Southern states, for instance, drew districts post-1900 to minimize Black voting influence under Jim Crow laws, blending partisan and racial criteria in ways that preserved Democratic dominance.^[30] This era's reliance on stasis over active manipulation effectively entrenched power, setting the stage for the Supreme Court's one-person-one-vote rulings that mandated timely, population-equal redistricting and curtailed such evasions.

Post-One-Person-One-Vote Era

The "one-person-one-vote" principle, enshrined by U.S. Supreme Court decisions including Reynolds v. Sims (1964), required state legislative districts to have substantially equal populations, effectively curtailing malapportionment that had disproportionately empowered rural voters.^[31] This shift compelled gerrymanderers to innovate within strict population equality constraints, emphasizing partisan packing—concentrating opponents' voters into few districts—and cracking—dispersing them to dilute influence across many—while adhering to contiguity and compactness norms where applicable.^[1] Congressional districts faced similar mandates under Wesberry v. Sanders (1964), standardizing apportionment decennially after censuses but enabling mapmakers to exploit granular voter data for advantage.^[32] Legal challenges evolved alongside these techniques, with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibiting minority vote dilution and prompting majority-minority districts that occasionally veered into racial gerrymanders. In Thornburg v. Gingles (1986), the Court established a three-pronged test for Section 2 dilution claims: sufficient minority population compactness, political cohesion, and white bloc voting defeating minority-preferred candidates.^[33] Partisan gerrymandering gained recognition as justiciable in Davis v. Bandemer (1986), requiring evidence of intentional discrimination and adverse electoral results, though the threshold proved elusive. Subsequent cases like Vieth v. Jubelirer (2004) highlighted the absence of manageable standards, with a plurality arguing federal courts lacked tools to adjudicate partisan claims.^[34] The 2010s marked an escalation, as Republican gains in state legislatures post-2010 census yielded maps in states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania yielding disproportionate seats—e.g., North Carolina Republicans won 10 of 13 congressional seats in 2012 despite 49% statewide vote share.^[35] In Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that partisan gerrymandering presents non-justiciable political questions, deferring remedies to legislatures and Congress, though racial gerrymanders remained actionable under the Equal Protection Clause.^[9] State courts filled the void, invalidating Pennsylvania's 2011 congressional map in 2018 for violating free elections under the state constitution and North Carolina's maps multiple times for excessive partisanship or racial predominance, as in the 12th District's serpentine shape struck down in Shaw v. Reno (1993) progeny.^[32] Advancements in geographic information systems and microtargeting data post-1990s enabled precision engineering, amplifying efficiency gaps—measuring "wasted" votes—often exceeding 10% in contested states, favoring the drawing party regardless of ideology.^[1] Reforms proliferated, with independent commissions adopted in states like California (Proposition 11, 2008) and upheld federally in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (2015), reducing but not eliminating manipulation in jurisdictions covering about half of congressional seats by 2020.^[32] Both major parties have employed these methods historically, though empirical analyses post-2010 attribute larger seat-vote disparities to Republican-drawn maps in unified trifecta states.^[36]

Techniques of District Manipulation

Core Tactics: Packing, Cracking, and Hijacking

Packing concentrates supporters of the targeted party into as few districts as possible, enabling overwhelming victories in those areas while minimizing the targeted party's competitiveness elsewhere. This tactic wastes the targeted party's excess votes beyond the threshold needed for victory, allowing the manipulating party to secure narrow wins in a greater number of districts. In mathematical terms, packing maximizes the vote margin in "safe" districts for the opposition, reducing their efficiency in translating votes to seats.^[37] A prominent example occurred in Wisconsin's 2011 state assembly redistricting, where Democratic voters, who comprised 53.5% of the statewide two-party vote, were disproportionately packed into Milwaukee's urban districts, yielding margins often exceeding 70% in those seats; consequently, Democrats won only 38 of 99 assembly seats.^[18] This outcome persisted through multiple elections, with Democrats averaging 52-54% of the vote share yet holding under 40% of seats until court-ordered changes in 2018.^[18] Cracking disperses the targeted party's voters across numerous districts, ensuring they form insufficient majorities to win any, thereby diluting their collective influence and enabling the manipulating party to capture those districts with slim pluralities. This spreads the opposition's votes thinly, preventing concentration into winnable blocs.^[37] In the same Wisconsin maps, cracking applied to Democratic-leaning suburban and rural areas outside packed urban cores, fragmenting their voter base so that Republicans could prevail in 60 districts with vote shares typically between 50-55%.^[18] Empirical analysis shows such cracking contributes to an efficiency gap, where the manipulating party's wasted votes (in losses) are fewer relative to the opposition's (in supermajority wins and narrow losses).^[37] Hijacking redraws district lines to force multiple incumbents from the targeted party—often of the same affiliation—into a single district, pitting them against each other in a primary or general election and guaranteeing the loss of at least one seat for that party. This tactic exploits incumbency advantages while neutralizing established representatives without directly altering voter demographics.^[38] While less quantifiable than packing or cracking, hijacking has appeared in mid-decade redistrictings, such as Texas's 2003 congressional remap, where boundaries were adjusted to consolidate certain Democratic incumbents, contributing to the party's net loss of seats despite stable statewide support.^[38] Combined, these tactics enable the controlling party to translate a bare popular majority—or even a plurality—into supermajorities in legislative bodies, as evidenced by partisan seat-vote disparities exceeding proportional expectations in states like North Carolina (2016: 46.7% Democratic vote yielded 3 of 13 congressional seats).^[37]

Role of Technology and Data

The advent of computer-assisted redistricting in the 1960s marked a pivotal shift, enabling mapmakers to integrate vast datasets for precise district boundary adjustments that complied with emerging legal requirements for equal population under the one-person-one-vote doctrine established by Baker v. Carr (1962) and subsequent rulings.^[39] Early systems relied on mainframe computers to process census data, but by the 1990s, advancements in geographic information systems (GIS) allowed for overlaying demographic, electoral, and geographic layers to simulate partisan outcomes with high accuracy.^[40] This facilitated tactics like packing and cracking by quantifying voter concentrations at the precinct or census block level, far surpassing manual methods' limitations in scale and precision.^[41] Specialized software, such as Caliper's Maptitude for Redistricting—designed in consultation with state legislatures and parties—incorporates tools for optimizing district compactness, contiguity, and partisan efficiency gaps while analyzing voter turnout histories and registration data.^[42] Similarly, Esri's Redistricting platform uses web-based GIS to model compliance with criteria like the Voting Rights Act's Section 5 preclearance (pre-2013) by projecting minority voting power dilution.^[43] These tools employ algorithms to generate thousands of map iterations, selecting those that maximize seats for the controlling party; for instance, simulations can predict election results under uniform swing scenarios, revealing how boundaries minimize competitive districts.^[44] Empirical analyses confirm that such technology amplifies gerrymandering's potency, as seen in studies of post-2000 cycles where data-driven maps yielded partisan biases exceeding those achievable manually.^[45] Granular data sources underpin this process, including U.S. Census Bureau's Public Law 94-171 redistricting files, which provide block-level population and race/ethnicity breakdowns updated decennially, and state voter files merging registration, voting history, and party affiliation records.^[46] Political operatives cross-reference these with consumer data for proxies of partisanship, such as magazine subscriptions or vehicle ownership, enabling microtargeting that cracks opposition voters across districts or packs them into few.^[47] In the 2011 redistricting cycle, for example, Republican-led states like North Carolina utilized proprietary voter models to draw maps that secured 10 of 13 congressional seats despite near-even statewide vote shares, a disparity quantified through efficiency gap metrics post-hoc.^[40] While technology also empowers independent simulations for detecting excess bias—via Markov chain Monte Carlo methods generating ensemble maps—its primary application by legislative majorities has entrenched advantages, as evidenced by simulations showing enacted plans deviating significantly from neutral alternatives.^[44]^[45]

Districting Criteria and Their Exploitation

Districting criteria for electoral maps in the United States generally include equal population distribution, contiguity, compactness, preservation of political subdivisions, and recognition of communities of interest, though only equal population is federally mandated for congressional districts under Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution and Supreme Court precedents like Wesberry v. Sanders (1964), requiring deviations no greater than 0.5% from ideal district size in most cases.^[48] Contiguity demands that all parts of a district be physically connected, while compactness—often measured by metrics such as the Polsby-Popper score, which assesses boundary efficiency relative to a circle—aims to avoid convoluted shapes, though no federal standard enforces it, leaving application to state constitutions or statutes in 20 states as of 2021.^[49] Preservation of counties, municipalities, or other subdivisions seeks to maintain administrative integrity, and communities of interest—encompassing shared economic, social, or cultural ties—provide flexibility for grouping voters, sometimes intersecting with Voting Rights Act (VRA) Section 2 requirements to prevent minority vote dilution.^[13] ![North Carolina 12th Congressional District example](./assets/North_Carolina_12th_Congressional_District_National_Atlas These criteria are frequently exploited in partisan gerrymandering by invoking their subjectivity to rationalize boundaries that concentrate (packing) or disperse (cracking) opposing voters, while minimally satisfying technical requirements; for example, the Polsby-Popper score's implementation allows thresholds as low as 0.1 for "compact" districts, enabling elongated or fragmented shapes that correlate with partisan bias in simulations, as districts with scores below 0.2 often emerge from map-drawing software optimized for electoral advantage rather than geometric efficiency.^[50] Contiguity is met through tenuous links, such as narrow corridors or "tentacles" spanning highways or rivers, which connect demographically mismatched areas to hijack competitive seats; in North Carolina's 12th Congressional District (1992-2003), a serpentine design linked urban Black populations across 160 miles under the guise of VRA compliance, packing minority voters into one district (achieving 95% Democratic lean) while cracking others statewide, upheld initially but later struck for excessive racial predominance in Shaw v. Hunt (1996).^[13] Preservation of subdivisions is selectively overridden, as states like Texas in 2011 split over 100 precincts to fine-tune partisan margins, claiming necessity for population equality despite data showing alternatives with fewer splits that yielded similar demographic balance.^[49] Communities of interest prove particularly malleable, as their identification relies on qualitative assessments prone to partisan interpretation; mapmakers may define them narrowly to isolate ideological clusters, diluting broader opposition coalitions, as seen in New York's 2012 maps where Democratic legislators justified splitting Republican-leaning suburbs by emphasizing hyper-local "interests" like school districts, resulting in a 6-3 partisan seat gain despite statewide vote parity, later invalidated for process violations.^[51] Under the VRA, criteria exploitation manifests in "packing" minorities into hyper-majority districts (e.g., Alabama's 2021 maps placing 80% of Black voters into one district despite comprising 27% of the population), freeing white-majority areas for safe partisan holds, though courts have scrutinized such moves for subordinating traditional criteria to racial targets exceeding strict scrutiny, as in Alabama v. Miller (2023) remand.^[52] Empirical analyses indicate that when criteria are weighted equally in algorithmic simulations, partisan-favored maps deviate significantly—e.g., reducing compactness by 20-30%—yet real-world plans adopted post-2010 census in states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania scored poorly on multiple metrics while delivering 10-15% seat overrepresentation, highlighting how aspirational standards serve as post-hoc rationales rather than binding constraints absent judicial enforcement.^[53] This flexibility underscores causal realism in redistricting: criteria mitigate but do not eliminate manipulation, as controlling parties leverage data precision to embed bias within plausible compliance, with measurable outcomes like diminished electoral competition in affected districts.^[50]

Causal Impacts

Effects on Electoral Competition and Outcomes

Partisan gerrymandering reduces electoral competition by concentrating voters into districts that predictably favor one party, thereby minimizing the number of swing or competitive districts where election outcomes are uncertain. Techniques such as packing (concentrating opponents' voters into few districts) and cracking (dispersing them across many) create safe seats for the manipulating party, leading to wider victory margins and fewer races decided by narrow margins. For instance, empirical analyses of enacted maps compared to simulated neutral alternatives reveal systematically fewer competitive districts in gerrymandered plans, as measured by metrics like the proportion of districts with vote shares within 5-10% of 50%.^[54] ^[55] This distortion manifests in electoral outcomes through seat-vote disproportionality, where the controlling party secures a higher share of seats than its statewide vote proportion would justify under more neutral districting. Regression discontinuity designs exploiting legislative seat thresholds show that parties gaining redistricting control (via >50% state legislative seats) increase their U.S. House seat probability by approximately 11 percentage points, reversing prior losses without corresponding shifts in vote shares. In specific cases, such as North Carolina's 2012 congressional map, Democrats received about 50% of the vote but won only 4 of 13 seats, a disparity attributed to partisan map-drawing rather than geographic clustering alone.^[8] ^[56] Nationally, however, the net impact on House composition remains modest due to countervailing gerrymanders by both parties, with studies estimating only a 2-seat Republican advantage post-2020 redistricting after simulating thousands of nonpartisan maps. While local effects entrench majorities in controlled states, broader partisan sorting and urban-rural divides explain more of the decline in competitive districts than redistricting alone, underscoring that gerrymandering amplifies but does not solely drive reduced contestability.^[57] ^[6]

Influence on Incumbency and Policy Responsiveness

Gerrymandering often seeks to entrench incumbents by delineating districts with partisan compositions that minimize general-election threats, a tactic prevalent in bipartisan redistricting where both parties collaborate to create safe seats for their legislators. Empirical examination of U.S. congressional redistricting, however, reveals that such manipulations typically erode incumbents' electoral security rather than enhance it, with vote margins contracting due to altered district boundaries introducing unfamiliar voters and diluting personal advantages. Analysis of multiple redistricting cycles shows incumbents' personal vote contributing only 4-5% to their overall edge, while turnover rates rise by about 5%, from baseline exit rates of around 20% to 25% in affected districts.^[58] This counterintuitive outcome underscores that gerrymandering's disruptive nature—reshuffling populations and occasionally pairing incumbents—offsets protective intents, with net effects remaining modest compared to non-districting factors like fundraising superiority and challenger scarcity. In partisan gerrymandering, controlling parties may prioritize displacing opponents through cracking (diluting their support) or packing (concentrating it), which can heighten vulnerability for targeted incumbents while shielding co-partisans, yet aggregate data indicate no substantial causal boost to reelection probabilities across cycles. Incumbency reelection rates have consistently exceeded 90% since the 1980s, but this stability predates intensified gerrymandering and correlates weakly with redistricting events, implying district manipulation explains little of the phenomenon. Bipartisan arrangements, common until the 2010s, further muted competitive pressures by mutual incumbent protection, but post-2010 partisan takeovers in state legislatures have amplified targeting, occasionally unseating incumbents without elevating overall retention rates. By fostering uncompetitive districts, gerrymandering diminishes policy responsiveness, as seat-vote translations become less proportional to public opinion shifts, allowing legislators to prioritize ideologically fervent primaries over median-voter appeals. Simulations of 2020s congressional maps demonstrate enacted plans underperform neutral benchmarks, delivering just 7.8 seats gained per 1% vote increase for the minority party versus 9.2 in impartial simulations—a 16% responsiveness deficit—while regionally amplifying bias despite national cancellations.^[5] Ideological distortions compound this: a 20-point efficiency gap shift correlates with a 0.3-unit deviation in delegation median ideology on the DW-NOMINATE scale (0.8 standard deviations toward extremes), yielding representatives whose records diverge from district medians and enable policies misaligned with statewide electorates, such as entrenched partisan agendas in gerrymandered state legislatures.^[53]

Empirical Evidence and Measurement Challenges

Empirical studies of gerrymandering's electoral impacts, often employing simulation-based comparisons to neutral redistricting plans, indicate modest national effects on seat shares but consistent reductions in local competition. A 2023 analysis of post-2020 congressional maps found that enacted plans conferred a net Republican advantage of approximately 2.3 seats compared to nonpartisan simulations, requiring Democrats to secure 51.1% of the national popular vote for a House majority rather than 50.9%.^[5] This bias arises partly from geographic factors disadvantaging Democrats by about 8 seats due to urban clustering, with partisan manipulation adding roughly 2 seats of additional tilt.^[5] Similarly, examinations of efficiency gaps—measuring disparities in parties' "wasted" votes (votes not contributing to a seat win)—reveal that unified partisan control of redistricting increases gaps by 3-4.5 percentage points favoring the controlling party, potentially shifting state congressional delegations' ideological medians by 0.3 to 0.6 points on the DW-NOMINATE scale, equivalent to 0.8-2 standard deviations without altering underlying voter preferences.^[53] Gerrymandering demonstrably diminishes electoral responsiveness and competition, though national partisan biases often offset across states. The same 2020 redistricting study estimated that enacted maps reduced competitive districts (defined as those with 47.5-52.5% vote margins) from about 50 to 34 compared to baselines, while decreasing seats gained per 1% national vote shift from 9.2 to 7.8—a 16% drop in responsiveness.^[5] This fosters more safe seats, entrenching incumbents and insulating representatives from moderate voter shifts, with geographic districting inherently favoring Republicans due to Democrats' concentration in fewer urban areas.^[6] Over time, alternating partisan control leads to reciprocal gerrymandering, muting aggregate seat distortions but amplifying localized uncompetitiveness, as seen in states like Texas (net +2 Republican seats) and Illinois (net +2 Democratic seats).^[5] Quantifying gerrymandering poses significant challenges, as proposed metrics like the efficiency gap—calculating the difference in parties' wasted votes divided by total votes—fail to reliably isolate manipulation from inherent electoral dynamics. Introduced by scholars Eric McGhee and Nicholas Stephanopoulos, the gap aims to detect asymmetry where one party consistently wins more seats for equivalent vote shares, but it exhibits instability from variables like turnout fluctuations, uncontested races requiring imputation (e.g., via Markov Chain Monte Carlo models yielding variances from 0.015 to 0.11 in Alabama's 1984 results), and arbitrary thresholds (e.g., 7% for legislatures).^[59]^[60] Critically, it conflates natural geographic clustering—such as Democrats' urban packing, which inherently produces more wasted votes—with intentional district manipulation, as evidenced by Illinois's 2012 Democratic gerrymander registering a Republican-leaning gap or Alabama's 1990s plans showing variable biases unrelated to drawing intent.^[60] Simulation methods for counterfactual maps introduce further hurdles, including subjective criteria for compactness or contiguity that can embed biases, and difficulties in decomposing total bias into geographic, structural, and manipulative components.^[5] No consensus standard exists for justiciable measurement, as affirmed in the U.S. Supreme Court's 2019 Rucho v. Common Cause decision, which highlighted the absence of clear, manageable tests distinguishing excessive partisanship from unavoidable districting trade-offs like respecting communities of interest.^[9] These issues underscore that while gerrymandering exerts causal influence on outcomes, its magnitude is often overstated relative to baseline asymmetries from voter geography and turnout patterns.^[60]

Perspectives on Benefits and Harms

Defenses: Geographic Realism and Ideological Cohesion

Proponents of certain districting practices argue that aligning electoral boundaries with geographic realities enhances representation by preserving natural communities of interest, such as counties or municipalities, which share common infrastructure needs, economic ties, and local governance structures.^[61] These units, often stable over time, facilitate stronger constituent-representative relationships, as evidenced by studies showing that county-aligned districts improve voter recall of their representatives by approximately 8% and awareness of challengers by 13%.^[61] The U.S. Supreme Court has acknowledged this rationale, permitting minor population deviations from strict equality to maintain such boundaries when they serve legitimate representational goals, as in Reynolds v. Sims (1964), where geographic contiguity and compactness were upheld to avoid fragmenting local political life. Critics of anti-gerrymandering reforms contend that ignoring these geographic clusters—often resulting from urban-rural divides or residential patterns—would produce artificial districts disconnected from voters' lived experiences, potentially undermining accountability on place-based issues like transportation or schools.^[62] Ideological cohesion in districts, arising from both natural voter sorting and strategic line-drawing, is defended as enabling clearer policy mandates and more effective advocacy for homogeneous electorates.^[63] In single-member districts, concentrating ideologically similar voters allows representatives to prioritize unified constituent priorities without diluting efforts across conflicting views, fostering legislatures that better mirror diverse statewide ideologies through a balance of safe and competitive seats.^[63] Empirical analysis of post-redistricting cycles, such as Texas in 2003-2004, shows that such configurations can increase legislative turnover by up to 45% compared to defensive packing, enhancing overall responsiveness by pressuring incumbents and preventing entrenchment.^[63] This approach counters the inevitability of uneven outcomes from geographic voter clustering—where urban Democrats and rural Republicans predominate—by ensuring minority ideological blocs secure dedicated representation rather than being perpetually marginalized in swing districts.^[62] Heritage Foundation scholars further assert that partisan considerations in districting, including cohesion, are inherent to democratic processes, as neutral maps would still reflect self-segregated ideological geographies without improving equity.^[64]

Criticisms: Reduced Accountability and Voter Dilution

Gerrymandering undermines electoral accountability by engineering districts with lopsided partisan majorities, which shield incumbents from competitive general elections and incentivize catering to extreme primary electorates over moderate swing voters. In such "safe" seats, representatives face reduced pressure to align policies with broader public opinion, as electoral defeat requires only intra-party challenges rather than widespread voter repudiation. Empirical analyses of U.S. congressional redistricting show that partisan map-drawing correlates with victory margins averaging over 20 percentage points in affected districts, compared to under 10 points in competitively drawn ones, fostering legislative insulation from dynamic shifts in constituent preferences.^[6]^[65] This dynamic has contributed to incumbency reelection rates in the U.S. House surpassing 90% in most election cycles since 1990, though causal attribution to gerrymandering remains debated amid confounding factors like campaign finance and media fragmentation.^[66] Voter dilution manifests through deliberate manipulation tactics like packing, which concentrates opposing partisans into minimal districts to squander their votes in supermajorities, and cracking, which fragments them across multiple districts to render them perpetual minorities incapable of electing preferred candidates. These strategies systematically erode the effective weight of votes for the targeted group, as excess votes in packed districts and insufficient ones in cracked districts fail to translate into proportional representation. Quantitative measures, such as the efficiency gap—defined as the difference between a party's statewide vote share and its seat share, normalized by district magnitude—capture this dilution; gaps exceeding 7% indicate statistically significant bias under simulations of neutral maps. For example, post-2010 Republican-led redistricting in North Carolina produced a 10.6% efficiency gap favoring Republicans in 2012 congressional races, yielding 10 of 13 seats despite a near-even statewide vote split.^[59]^[67] While national-level partisan gerrymandering effects often cancel out across states—yielding roughly proportional aggregate outcomes—the local distortions persist, amplifying unaccountable governance in individual districts where diluted voters exert negligible influence on policy. Critics argue this violates first-principles of representative democracy, where each voter's ballot should carry equivalent potential impact absent geographic necessities, though defenders contend natural clustering of ideologies justifies some packing. Empirical evidence from redistricting cycles, including 2020, confirms widespread application of these tactics, with over half of states exhibiting partisan bias in at least one chamber, yet measurement challenges arise from ensemble simulations' sensitivity to assumptions about voter turnout and migration.^[5]^[57] Such dilution not only entrenches policy extremism but also discourages turnout among cracked voters perceiving futility, as turnout drops by up to 2-3 percentage points in highly packed or cracked districts per studies of state legislatures.

Debunking Overstated Claims

Claims that partisan gerrymandering systematically delivers Republicans a substantial and enduring advantage in congressional seats, independent of voter preferences, overstate its causal impact. Empirical analyses of enacted maps following the 2020 census indicate that gerrymandering by both parties largely offsets nationally, yielding a net Republican gain of only 2.3 seats out of 435.^[57] Computer simulations of redistricting under neutral criteria confirm that partisan manipulation produces no more than one additional Republican seat in the U.S. House overall, as gains in Republican-controlled states are balanced by Democratic advantages elsewhere.^[45] In the 2018, 2020, and 2022 elections, Republican House seats aligned closely with their two-party vote shares, deviating by at most two seats from proportionality, contradicting narratives of distortion.^[62] A related overstatement attributes most electoral bias to deliberate district manipulation rather than underlying voter geography. The urban concentration of Democratic voters creates inherent "packing," where votes are wasted in lopsided districts without any need for cracking or hijacking tactics, accounting for the majority of observed bias.^[45] Structural factors tied to population distribution impose an 8-seat disadvantage on Democrats compared to baseline neutral maps, dwarfing the 2.3-seat net effect of gerrymandering.^[57] This geographic baseline—exacerbated by partisan sorting into urban versus rural areas—explains persistent imbalances more than redistricting choices, as neutral simulations incorporating real voter distributions replicate much of the status quo without partisan intent.^[62] Metrics like the efficiency gap, often invoked to quantify gerrymandering's harms, are prone to overstating bias by conflating natural vote clustering with manipulation. The measure can deem a map gerrymandered against the minority party even when the majority wins both supermajorities of votes and seats, as it penalizes geographic concentration without distinguishing intent or inevitability.^[68] For instance, dense Democratic enclaves in cities like Milwaukee produce "wasted" votes that inflate the gap under neutral lines, falsely signaling packing when no cracking occurred.^[68] Such flaws render the efficiency gap unreliable for causal attribution, as it overlooks volatility in elections and baseline geographic effects that simulations show dominate outcomes.^[68]^[45] Assertions that gerrymandering uniquely erodes competition ignore the primacy of polarization in generating safe seats. While manipulation can entrench incumbents, recent cycles show close races (under 5% margin) divided nearly evenly between parties—19-18 in both 2020 and 2022—suggesting lines do not systematically suppress contests beyond voter sorting.^[62] Nationally balanced gerrymandering reduces responsiveness marginally (from 9.2 to 7.8 seats per 1% national vote shift), but this stems more from aggregated state-level packing than partisan asymmetry.^[57] These patterns underscore that while gerrymandering amplifies existing divides, claims of it as the dominant driver of uncompetitive elections or policy insulation lack empirical support when controlling for demographic realities.^[57]^[62]

Legal Frameworks

Constitutional Basis in the United States

The U.S. Constitution vests state legislatures with primary authority over the "Times, Places and Manner" of holding elections for members of the House of Representatives, encompassing the establishment of congressional district boundaries.^[69] Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 explicitly states: "The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators."^[70] This Elections Clause delegates broad discretion to states, including the power to divide their apportioned seats into districts, without imposing federal requirements for compactness, contiguity, or non-partisan criteria in boundary delineation.^[71] Article I, Section 2 further mandates that representation in the House be apportioned among the states according to population as determined by the decennial census, with each state guaranteed at least one representative, but it defers intrastate districting to state processes under the Elections Clause framework.^[72] The absence of explicit constitutional prohibitions on manipulating district shapes for partisan advantage—such as packing opponents into few districts or cracking their support across many—underpins the permissibility of gerrymandering as a practice rooted in state legislative prerogative.^[73] Congress retains override authority but has historically exercised it sparingly, such as through 19th-century statutes requiring single-member districts and basic contiguity, without addressing partisan intent.^[74] This state-centric allocation reflects the framers' intent to balance federal uniformity with local control, as evidenced by Federalist No. 59, where Alexander Hamilton argued that state legislatures' role in elections prevents overreach by either national or state actors. Subsequent amendments, including the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause, have introduced avenues for judicial scrutiny of districting excesses, but the core constitutional basis remains the unrestrictive delegation to states, enabling partisan boundary adjustments absent congressional intervention or state constitutional limits. No provision in the original text or early amendments mandates proportional representation or bars self-interested redistricting by majority parties in state legislatures.

Key Judicial Precedents on Partisan and Racial Gerrymandering

In Shaw v. Reno (1993), the Supreme Court held that North Carolina's congressional redistricting plan, which created a bizarrely shaped majority-minority district to comply with the Voting Rights Act, stated a valid claim under the Equal Protection Clause because the boundaries were "unexplainable on grounds other than race," subjecting such plans to strict scrutiny if race predominates over traditional districting principles like compactness and contiguity.^[75] The decision established that racial classifications in redistricting must serve a compelling interest and be narrowly tailored, marking the first recognition of standalone racial gerrymandering claims outside of vote dilution contexts.^[75] Building on Shaw, Miller v. Johnson (1995) invalidated Georgia's Eleventh Congressional District, finding that race had predominated in the drawing process despite assertions of Voting Rights Act compliance, as traditional criteria were subordinated to achieve a 65% Black voting-age population.^[76] The Court clarified that strict scrutiny applies whenever race is the "dominant and controlling" factor, even if intertwined with political considerations, and that compliance with federal preclearance alone does not immunize plans from constitutional review.^[76] More recently, in Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP (2024), the Supreme Court reversed a district court's invalidation of South Carolina's First Congressional District, ruling that the lower court's finding of racial predominance was clearly erroneous given evidence of predominant partisan motivations and deference to legislative good faith absent direct proof of discriminatory intent.^[77] The 6-3 decision emphasized that challengers bear the burden to disentangle racial from permissible partisan factors and heightened skepticism toward inferences of bad faith drawn from circumstantial evidence like map iterations.^[77] For partisan gerrymandering, Davis v. Bandemer (1986) marked the first holding that such claims are justiciable under the Equal Protection Clause, but required plaintiffs to prove both intentional discrimination against an identifiable political group and actual, widespread vote dilution resulting in consistent exclusion from representation, a threshold unmet by Indiana Democrats' challenge to the state's 1981 plan despite their 1982 election losses.^[78] In Vieth v. Jubelirer (2004), a plurality of four justices deemed partisan gerrymandering claims non-justiciable as political questions lacking judicially manageable standards, overruling Bandemer's framework, while Justice Kennedy's concurrence left open the possibility if future standards emerged, applied to Pennsylvania's mid-decade Republican-drawn map that disadvantaged Democrats.^[79] The issue culminated in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), where the Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that federal courts lack authority to adjudicate partisan gerrymandering claims involving North Carolina and Maryland congressional maps, as no clear constitutional directive or judicially discernible limits exist to cabin excessive partisanship, leaving remedies to Congress, state legislatures, or ballot initiatives.^[80] In Moore v. Harper (2023), the Court rejected North Carolina Republicans' independent state legislature theory, holding 6-3 that state courts retain authority under the Elections Clause to review and strike congressional maps for violating state constitutional provisions like those prohibiting partisan gerrymanders, though federal courts may intervene if state processes deviate too far from ordinary judicial review.^[81] This preserved state-level checks while reinforcing federal non-intervention in partisan bias absent racial components.^[81]

State-Level Regulations and Federal Limits

Federal constraints on gerrymandering primarily address racial discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, prohibiting districts that dilute minority voting power or are drawn predominantly on racial lines without compelling justification.^[82] Partisan gerrymandering, however, lacks enforceable federal standards; in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that such claims present non-justiciable political questions, leaving regulation to state legislatures or Congress under Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution, which grants states initial authority over the "times, places and manner" of congressional elections.^[9]^[83] At the state level, redistricting authority typically resides with legislatures in 34 states for both congressional and state legislative maps, but at least 10 states employ independent commissions for congressional districts to curb partisan influence, including Arizona (since 2000), California (via Propositions 11 in 2008 and 20 in 2010), Colorado (2018 amendment), Idaho (1994), Michigan (2018 ballot initiative), Montana (2020), Ohio (2018 amendments), and Utah (2018).^[84]^[85] These commissions often consist of bipartisan or non-partisan appointees selected through lottery or screening processes to exclude recent politicians and lobbyists, aiming for maps based on neutral criteria rather than electoral outcomes.^[86] Most states mandate traditional redistricting criteria to promote fair districts, such as contiguity (all parts connected), compactness (minimal boundary length relative to area to avoid elongated shapes), and equal population (deviations under 5% typically, per federal one-person, one-vote rule from Wesberry v. Sanders (1964)).^[49]^[13] Thirty-seven states require compactness for legislative districts and 21 for congressional ones, alongside preserving county or municipal boundaries and communities of interest where feasible.^[49] Additional rules in 15 states prohibit mid-decade redistricting outside census years, and some, like Virginia, bar considering incumbency or election data.^[49] State courts have enforced anti-gerrymandering provisions in constitutions lacking explicit partisan bans, interpreting clauses on free and equal elections or compactness to invalidate extreme maps; for instance, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court in 2018 struck down congressional districts as violating the state constitution's "free and equal election" guarantee, ordering new maps.^[87]^[88] North Carolina's court similarly intervened in 2022 under state free elections and compactness clauses but reversed in 2023, upholding legislative maps after a composition change.^[89] These interventions highlight variability, as outcomes depend on judicial interpretation and political shifts, with no uniform nationwide ban on partisan considerations.^[90]

Systemic Contexts

Single-Member District Systems

Single-member district systems divide an electoral jurisdiction into geographic constituencies, each electing one representative via winner-take-all voting, typically plurality or first-past-the-post rules. This arrangement, used for national legislatures in nations including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and India, creates discrete boundaries that parties or incumbents in power can redraw to systematically advantage aligned candidates. The mechanics of such systems reward boundary manipulators by allowing control over vote distribution: even modest shifts in lines can convert competitive areas into safe seats for the drafter's party, amplifying small statewide vote margins into outsized legislative majorities.^[91]^[1] The core vulnerability stems from the non-proportional nature of representation, where only the plurality winner captures the entire district's seat, rendering all other votes ineffective for seat allocation within that unit. Gerrymanderers employ packing, which herds an opposing party's voters into compact districts to secure those seats by supermajorities while minimizing the opposition's wins elsewhere, and cracking, which fragments those voters across districts to ensure narrow losses in multiple races. This duo exploits the "wasted vote" phenomenon—supermajority margins in lost districts and sub-majority shares in won ones—yielding an efficiency advantage for the packer/cracker. Mathematical metrics like the efficiency gap, defined as the difference between parties' wasted votes divided by total votes, empirically detect such distortions; values exceeding 7% signal potential gerrymanders under proposed thresholds.^[1]^[59] In practice, SMD gerrymandering sustains itself through decennial redistricting cycles tied to census updates, as seen in the U.S. where state legislatures redraw congressional maps post-2020 Census, often entrenching partisan edges that persist for a decade. Analyses of recent U.S. maps reveal that while national-level partisan biases from gerrymandering largely offset across states—yielding near-proportional House outcomes overall—subnational effects concentrate power, with Republican-drawn maps in battleground states like North Carolina and Ohio projected to deliver 10-15 seat cushions above vote parity through 2030. Such distortions reduce electoral competition, as measured by the decline in swing districts from 103 in 1992 to 37 in 2022, fostering unaccountable incumbents and policy skews uncorrelated with median voter preferences. Internationally, SMD systems in first-past-the-post nations like the UK exhibit similar risks, though boundary commissions there mitigate overt partisanship compared to U.S. legislative control.^[17]^[15] Causal realism underscores that SMD's district-specific incentives inherently invite boundary gaming absent neutral safeguards, as uniform vote-to-seat translation ignores geographic clustering of ideologies; empirical cross-national data confirms higher disproportionality in SMD than in multi-member or proportional setups, with gerrymandering accounting for up to 20% of seat bias in manipulable contexts. Reforms like independent commissions or criteria-based algorithms seek to curb this, but the system's foundational winner-take-all logic persists as the enabling condition.^[92]^[93]

Proportional Representation and Alternatives

Proportional representation (PR) electoral systems allocate legislative seats to parties or candidates in proportion to the votes they receive, typically through multi-member districts or party lists, thereby minimizing the manipulative potential of district boundaries inherent in single-member district (SMD) systems.^[93] In PR, gerrymandering's tactics of "packing" (concentrating opponents into few districts) and "cracking" (diluting opponents across many districts) lose effectiveness, as multiple seats per district or overall vote shares determine outcomes rather than winner-take-all contests.^[92] This structure ensures that seat shares more closely mirror popular vote distributions, reducing artificial vote dilution from redistricting.^[94] Common PR variants include party-list systems, where voters select parties and seats are apportioned via methods like the d'Hondt formula, and single transferable vote (STV), which uses ranked ballots in multi-member districts to elect candidates exceeding vote quotas.^[95] These approaches sidestep gerrymandering by de-emphasizing precise district lines; for instance, in nationwide list PR, no districts exist, eliminating boundary manipulation entirely. Empirical analyses confirm PR's superiority in proportionality: cross-national studies show PR systems exhibit lower vote-seat disproportionality indices—measuring deviation between vote and seat shares—compared to SMD systems, with average disparities under 5% in pure PR nations versus over 10% in SMD ones.^[96]^[97] Over 80 countries, representing about half the world's population, employ PR or hybrid systems for at least one legislative chamber, including Israel (fully list-based since 1951), the Netherlands (nationwide districts), and Sweden (regional lists with 4% thresholds).^[98] In these contexts, gerrymandering claims are rare, as proportionality enforces representation reflective of electorate divisions without geographic contortions; for example, Israel's Knesset elections since 1996 have maintained seat-vote correlations above 95% despite coalition dynamics.^[99] Mixed-member proportional (MMP) systems, blending SMDs with compensatory list seats—as in Germany since 1953—further mitigate gerrymandering by adjusting overall outcomes to match vote shares, though they retain some district-drawing incentives.^[100] Alternatives to pure PR include multi-member districts with ranked-choice voting (RCV), proposed in U.S. reforms like the 2021 Fair Representation Act, which would create 3-5 seat districts to enhance minority-party viability and curb partisan map-drawing.^[101] While PR systems can introduce challenges like higher party fragmentation—evident in Italy's pre-1993 lists yielding unstable coalitions—causal evidence links them to greater policy responsiveness and reduced extremism via broader representation, outperforming SMD in metrics of democratic quality.^[102]^[103] Nonetheless, implementation requires thresholds (e.g., 5% nationwide in Germany) to balance proportionality against excessive splintering.^[104]

Global Examples

United States: Congressional and State Cases

Congressional redistricting in the United States often features partisan gerrymandering, with controlling parties crafting districts to secure disproportionate House seats relative to statewide vote shares. Following the 2010 census, Republican majorities in numerous state legislatures drew maps yielding lopsided advantages, such as in North Carolina where the 2016 plan delivered 10 of 13 seats with only 53% of the two-party vote.^[9] Democrats pursued similar tactics in states like Maryland, maintaining a 7-1 delegation despite a 65% Democratic vote share that arguably warranted fewer seats, and in Illinois where the 2021 map projected 14-3 Democratic control.^[9] These practices exploit single-member districts by packing opponents into few districts and cracking their support across many, minimizing "wasted" votes.^[105] Federal courts have adjudicated racial aspects of congressional gerrymandering under the Voting Rights Act and Equal Protection Clause but deferred on pure partisanship. In Shaw v. Reno (1993) and subsequent North Carolina cases, the Supreme Court invalidated districts like the snake-like 12th for subordinating traditional criteria to racial targets, violating equal protection by segregating voters by race.^[80] The 2016 North Carolina map faced multiple challenges; lower courts struck it for racial gerrymandering after finding Black voters were deliberately concentrated or dispersed to achieve partisan ends under the guise of race.^[106] However, in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), the Court ruled 5-4 that partisan gerrymandering claims present non-justiciable political questions, citing absence of judicially manageable standards and risks of entangling courts in policy.^[9] This decision consolidated challenges from North Carolina Republicans' map and Maryland Democrats', emphasizing that excesses must be addressed legislatively or via state constitutions.^[80] State courts have intervened where federal ones cannot, enforcing provisions against undue partisanship. Pennsylvania's 2011 Republican-drawn congressional map, which secured 13-5 seats against vote shares implying 12-6 or closer, was invalidated by the state Supreme Court in League of Women Voters v. Commonwealth (2018) under the constitution's requirement for compact, contiguous districts and free elections.^[107] The court ordered redrawing, resulting in a more competitive map for 2018 elections.^[108] Similar state-level scrutiny occurred in North Carolina, where 2023 legislative maps were upheld amid partisan claims, but congressional adjustments followed racial challenges.^[106] State legislative gerrymandering mirrors congressional patterns but affects policy responsiveness more directly, as legislatures control their own maps. Wisconsin's 2011 Act 43, enacted by Republicans post-2010 gains, produced assembly majorities exceeding 60 seats with 48.6% of the vote, challenged in Gill v. Whitford (2018) using metrics like efficiency gap—measuring wasted votes—but dismissed by the Supreme Court for standing issues rather than merits.^[109] North Carolina's 2016 state senate map was struck for racial gerrymandering, as districts subordinated compactness to pack Black voters at 50% thresholds for Democratic control.^[110] Democrats' maps in states like New Jersey and Oregon have shown comparable biases when they hold power, though Republican control in 21 states after 2010 amplified national perceptions of imbalance.^[111] Empirical analyses indicate partisan gerrymanders' national House effects largely offset across states, with geographic clustering of voters contributing more to seat-vote disparities than map manipulation alone.^[105]

United Kingdom and Commonwealth Nations

In the United Kingdom, parliamentary constituency boundaries are delineated by independent statutory bodies—the Boundary Commissions for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland—created under the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 to insulate the process from direct political interference.^[112] These commissions undertake reviews approximately every eight to twelve years, guided by rules that prioritize electorate equality (within a 5% quota variance), contiguity, and respect for local government boundaries and geographic features, with public consultations required at multiple stages.^[113] The 2023 review, finalized on July 28, 2023, adjusted boundaries for 650 constituencies to reflect population shifts from the 2021 census, reducing the total electorate size by excluding unregistered voters and aiming to eliminate prior malapportionment where some seats had up to 30,000 more voters than others.^[114] Although the independent framework has largely prevented the partisan district-packing or cracking seen in systems with legislative control, critics contend that government-imposed rules, such as voter registration thresholds, indirectly skew outcomes; for instance, simulations of the 2019 election under new boundaries projected a net gain for Conservatives due to uncounted recent movers and under-registered groups disproportionately affecting urban Labour areas.^[115] Historical attempts at influence, like the 2011 reduction of Commons seats from 650 to 600 (later reversed), were overridden by commission independence, underscoring the system's resilience against overt manipulation.^[116] Among Commonwealth nations, Canada employs a similar non-partisan model for federal ridings, where independent commissions—chaired by a judge and including political appointees but insulated from party directives—redraw boundaries decennially post-census, incorporating public hearings and criteria like population parity (within 25% variance inter-provincially) and community interests.^[117] Reforms since the 1964 Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act devolved direct parliamentary veto, minimizing gerrymandering risks, though provincial cases like Quebec's 2022 map have drawn rare accusations of favoring incumbents via aggregation of safe seats.^[118] Australia's federal divisions are managed by the independent Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), which triggers redistributions upon population thresholds (e.g., a division deviating over 10% from the state quota), using mathematical modeling for compactness and avoiding political input beyond objections.^[119] State-level gerrymandering, exemplified by Queensland's 1970s "Bjelke-Manders" that weighted rural votes disproportionately (urban seats needing 20-30% more votes for victory), was dismantled by 1992 referenda mandating "one vote one value," with ongoing AEC oversight ensuring equity.^[120] In India, a Commonwealth member with single-member districts, the Delimitation Commission—last active in 2002—adjusts boundaries based on census data, but lacks strict independence, enabling allegations of manipulation; for example, post-2019 Jammu and Kashmir reorganization fragmented Muslim-majority areas into Hindu-dominant districts, diluting opposition votes in assembly segments.^[121] State-level redraws, such as Karnataka's 2008 exercise, have produced convoluted shapes favoring incumbents, with urban-rural quota imbalances persisting despite Supreme Court mandates for transparency.^[122] Overall, independent commissions in most Westminster-derived systems curb deliberate gerrymandering, though first-past-the-post mechanics amplify any residual geographic biases compared to proportional alternatives.

European and Other Democracies

In European democracies, gerrymandering occurs less frequently than in single-member district-dominant systems like the United States, primarily because most countries employ proportional representation (PR) or mixed-member systems that allocate seats based on overall vote shares rather than winner-take-all districts, reducing incentives for boundary manipulation. Where single-member districts (SMDs) are used, such as in France and the United Kingdom, redistricting is often overseen by independent commissions, courts, or legislative processes designed to prioritize population equality and compactness, though allegations of partisan influence persist in some cases. Academic analyses indicate that while overt packing and cracking tactics are rare, malapportionment—unequal district populations favoring rural or conservative areas—has been documented, particularly in executive-driven processes.^[123] Hungary provides a stark example of gerrymandering in a hybrid SMD-PR system. Following the Fidesz-KDNP coalition's 2010 supermajority victory, the government enacted a new electoral law in 2011 that reduced parliamentary seats from 386 to 199, eliminated overhang seats, and redrew constituency boundaries to consolidate rural conservative strongholds while fragmenting urban opposition support. Districts were made unequal in population—some varying by up to 20%—and shapes were adjusted to "crack" opposition votes across more constituencies, enabling Fidesz to win 83 of 106 SMDs in 2014 despite receiving only 44% of the national vote. This manipulation contributed to Fidesz securing 54% of seats in the 2022 election with 49% of SMD votes, entrenching its two-thirds majority despite a narrower popular vote lead of 54% including list votes. Independent analyses describe this as a "hacking" of the system to minimize opposition competitiveness, with simulations showing fairer maps would have yielded more balanced outcomes.^[124]^[125]^[126] In France, which uses SMDs with two-round runoff voting for National Assembly elections, redistricting is determined by executive decree under Article 24 of the Constitution, subject to Constitutional Council review, leading to documented partisan biases. A 2016 study of post-1958 redraws found systematic overrepresentation of right-leaning rural areas through malapportionment, with urban districts averaging 10-15% larger populations than rural ones, favoring conservative incumbents by an estimated 5-10 seats per election cycle. The 2010 redistricting, enacted by the Sarkozy government, increased seats from 577 to 577 but adjusted boundaries to reflect demographic shifts while critics alleged it preserved right-wing advantages in overseas territories and peripheral regions; the Council invalidated some changes for inequality exceeding 20% but approved the map overall. Such executive control contrasts with judicial oversight in other democracies, enabling subtle gerrymandering without bizarre shapes, though PR proposals have periodically surfaced to mitigate it.^[127] The United Kingdom employs independent Boundary Commissions—one each for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland—to redraw parliamentary constituencies every five to eight years based on census data, mandating near-equal electorates (within 5% variance) and contiguous compact shapes without partisan input. This process, governed by the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 (as amended), has prevented classic gerrymandering since its inception in 1944, though first-past-the-post amplifies seat-vote disparities; for instance, the 2023 review equalized 650 constituencies to 73,000 electors each, rejecting political amendments during public consultations. Claims of indirect bias, such as delays under Labour governments favoring urban seats, have been unsubstantiated, with commissions maintaining neutrality via civil service staffing.^[114]^[128] Italy, transitioning from SMD-heavy systems to near-full PR since 2017, has seen gerrymandering allegations in earlier mixed setups, particularly in Senate constituencies where regional malapportionment favored southern overrepresented areas by up to 30% in population equality during the 1990s-2000s. A 2019 statistical analysis of 2013-2018 cycles found weak evidence of partisan districting bias, attributing discrepancies more to historical turnout patterns than deliberate manipulation, though Venice Commission reports highlight risks in opaque allocation formulas. In Romania, 2008 elections featured both gerrymandering and malapportionment, with diaspora vote dilution and uneven district sizes boosting the ruling coalition by inflating rural seats.^[129]^[130] Beyond Europe, democracies like Australia and Canada minimize gerrymandering through non-partisan electoral commissions. Australia's Electoral Commission conducts redistributions every seven years or upon 10% population shifts, using algorithmic criteria for compactness and community interests without legislative veto, as in the 2021 redraw of 151 House districts to equalize enrollments at ~110,000 voters each. Canada's independent commissions, appointed every decade post-census, propose maps via public hearings, with Parliament able to amend only by two-thirds vote, ensuring 338 federal ridings average 115,000 electors as of 2022. These models demonstrate how depoliticized processes can align districting with demographic equity over partisan gain.^[131]^[123]

Reform Efforts

Independent Commissions and Bipartisan Processes

Independent redistricting commissions, established in several U.S. states to mitigate partisan control over district mapping, consist of members selected through non-legislative processes, often including citizens, retired judges, or appointees from multiple political affiliations, tasked with drawing boundaries based on criteria such as population equality, compactness, contiguity, and preservation of communities of interest while prohibiting the use of partisan data.^[85] Arizona pioneered this model with Proposition 106, approved by voters on November 7, 2000, creating a five-member commission comprising two Democrats, two Republicans, and an independent chair selected by the state Supreme Court, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld as constitutional in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission on June 29, 2015.^[132] California's Citizens Redistricting Commission, established via Proposition 11 passed on November 4, 2008, and expanded to congressional districts by Proposition 20 on November 2, 2010, features 14 members—five each from the major parties and four independents—randomly selected from applicants screened for partisanship, with final picks by legislative leaders and the Bureau of State Audits.^[133] As of 2021, at least 11 states employed commissions for congressional redistricting, including Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, and Utah, while others like Alaska and Iowa use advisory or politician-led commissions with binding criteria emphasizing nonpartisan factors.^[134] Bipartisan processes within these commissions typically mandate balanced representation to foster negotiation and compromise, such as equal partisan appointments plus tie-breaking independents, aiming to produce maps reflecting statewide vote shares more closely than legislature-drawn plans. In Michigan, voters approved an independent commission on November 6, 2018, via Proposal 2, which drew maps for the 2022 cycle resulting in Democrats gaining seats proportional to their popular vote despite prior Republican advantages.^[135] Studies indicate these commissions correlate with increased electoral competitiveness; for instance, districts drawn by independent commissions are 2.25 times more likely to host competitive races, reducing incumbent party victory margins by approximately 52% compared to partisan processes.^[136] In California, post-2010 commission maps yielded more seats flipping parties between 2012 and 2018 than under prior legislature control, with metrics showing reduced partisan bias as measured by efficiency gaps and seats-votes curves.^[137] Despite these benefits, commissions are not immune to influence; commissioner selection can favor one party through appointment mechanisms, as seen in New York's 2020 commission, where Democratic-leaning maps were rejected by courts for violating compactness rules, leading to legislature intervention.^[138] Bipartisan advisory processes, like Iowa's nonpartisan legislative staff model since 1980, require maps to pass without amendment consideration of partisan data, producing compact districts but occasionally criticized for ignoring communities of interest.^[85] Overall, empirical analyses from the 2020 cycle affirm that robust independent commissions yield fairer outcomes than pure partisan drawing, though their success hinges on enforceable criteria and judicial oversight to prevent subtler manipulations.^[139]^[140]

Algorithmic and Criteria-Based Approaches

Criteria-based redistricting employs statutory or constitutional guidelines to constrain map-drawers, promoting districts that reflect geographic and demographic realities rather than partisan advantage. Core requirements include equal population across districts, mandated federally by the Equal Protection Clause as interpreted in Reynolds v. Sims (1964), ensuring no more than minimal deviation—typically under 1% for congressional districts—to uphold "one person, one vote." Additional criteria encompass contiguity (districts must be physically connected), compactness (to avoid elongated or convoluted shapes), and minimizing splits of counties, cities, or communities of interest. Compactness is often measured quantitatively: the Polsby-Popper metric calculates a district's "roundness" as $4\pi \times \frac{\text{area}}{\text{perimeter}^2}, with scores closer to 1 indicating greater compactness, while the Reock score evaluates the fraction of the district contained within its smallest enclosing circle. As of 2023, 21 states mandate compactness explicitly, 47 require contiguity, and 34 prioritize preserving political subdivisions, though enforcement varies and criteria can conflict, allowing interpretive discretion that undermines neutrality.^[49]^[141] These criteria aim to produce verifiable, non-arbitrary maps, with empirical analysis showing that stricter compactness rules correlate with reduced opportunities for packing (concentrating opponents' voters) or cracking (diluting them across districts). For example, simulations enforcing high compactness scores yield plans with lower partisan bias metrics, such as the efficiency gap, which quantifies wasted votes as the difference in parties' non-winning vote shares divided by total votes. However, criteria alone do not guarantee fairness, as mapmakers can optimize within bounds to favor incumbents or parties, and judicial review often defers to legislative intent absent extreme violations.^[141]^[142] Algorithmic approaches automate district generation or evaluation using computational models to optimize criteria objectively, reducing human intervention. The shortest splitline algorithm, proposed by Warren D. Smith, recursively bisects a state's population into equal halves via the geographically shortest line that achieves balance, repeating until the target number of districts (e.g., 435 for Congress) is obtained; this deterministic method prioritizes compactness and contiguity without partisan inputs. Applied to all 50 states in simulations as of 2008, it generates districts with median Polsby-Popper scores exceeding those of enacted maps in gerrymandered states like North Carolina (0.22 simulated vs. 0.12 actual in 2016), potentially halving partisan seat-vote disparities in illustrative cases.^[143]^[144]^[145] More advanced techniques, such as Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling, generate ensembles of thousands of compliant maps by starting from a seed plan and iteratively perturbing boundaries while enforcing criteria like population equality (±0.1% tolerance) and compactness thresholds. These ensembles enable statistical tests: a proposed map is flagged as gerrymandered if its partisan outcomes (e.g., seats won under uniform swing) fall in the extreme 1% tail of the distribution. Harvard researchers implemented such a tool in 2022, simulating over 1,000 maps per state to benchmark plans in litigation, as in North Carolina's 2022 congressional challenges where enacted maps deviated significantly from simulated norms.^[44]^[146]^[147] Similarly, optimization software like BARD uses heuristic search to refine plans, balancing multiple criteria via weighted objectives, though results depend on parameter choices.^[148] Despite advantages, algorithmic methods confront scalability issues—full MCMC for populous states requires supercomputing resources—and trade-offs, as optimizing compactness may fragment minority communities, complicating compliance with the Voting Rights Act's Section 2 non-retrogression standard. Studies indicate these tools detect bias effectively in hindsight but have limited adoption for initial drawing, with no U.S. state mandating fully automated processes as of 2024; instead, they inform commissions or courts, as in Michigan's independent panel using simulated ensembles post-2021. Causal analysis reveals that while criteria and algorithms curb overt manipulation, underlying voter geography (e.g., urban-rural polarization) imposes natural biases no method fully erases, underscoring the limits of technical fixes absent process reforms.^[142]^[149]^[150]

Broader Electoral Reforms

Broader electoral reforms seek to mitigate gerrymandering by altering the underlying structure of electoral systems, particularly the reliance on single-member districts with winner-take-all voting, which amplifies the effects of manipulative districting. In such systems, gerrymandering techniques like packing and cracking distort representation by concentrating or diluting voter groups to favor one party, often leading to outcomes where legislative seats do not reflect popular vote shares—for instance, in the 2020 U.S. House elections, Republicans won 50% of seats with 47% of the vote due in part to districting advantages.^[93]^[92] Reforms shifting to proportional representation (PR) or multi-member districts (MMDs) aim to allocate seats based on vote proportions, rendering precise district boundaries less consequential for partisan advantage.^[93]^[151] Proportional representation systems, used in most democracies outside the U.S., elect multiple representatives per district via party lists or ranked preferences, ensuring seats mirror overall voter preferences and minimizing gerrymandering's leverage. For example, in PR setups, a party receiving 40% of votes in a multi-member district might secure 40% of seats, regardless of how lines are drawn, as allocation depends on aggregate support rather than isolated majorities.^[93]^[152] Advocates argue this fosters competitive, diverse legislatures, though critics note potential dilution of local accountability compared to single-member districts.^[101]^[104] In the U.S., where only a few states like Illinois have limited MMDs, expanding PR could address structural biases, as evidenced by simulations showing reduced partisan skew in PR-adapted maps.^[153]^[154] A prominent U.S. proposal, the Fair Representation Act reintroduced on July 23, 2025, by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) and cosponsors, would mandate 3- to 5-member congressional districts elected via ranked-choice voting (RCV), effectively implementing a form of PR.^[155]^[156] RCV allows voters to rank candidates, enabling proportional outcomes in MMDs by electing winners through successive eliminations until seats are filled, which studies indicate blunts gerrymandering by promoting broader coalitions and reducing safe-seat incentives.^[153] This approach has been piloted locally, such as in Maine and New York City, where RCV in multi-winner races increased candidate diversity without proportional distortion.^[157]^[158] Proponents claim it ends "gerrymandering wars" by decoupling representation from hyper-local packing, though implementation faces constitutional hurdles under Article I, requiring congressional or state-level action.^[159]^[92] Other reforms include hybrid systems like open primaries combined with RCV to weaken party control over nominations, indirectly curbing gerrymandering's entrenchment of extremes, as seen in Alaska's 2022 adoption where top-four primaries and RCV produced more moderate outcomes.^[158] These changes prioritize empirical vote efficiency over district compactness, with data from PR nations like Germany showing seats aligning closely to vote shares (e.g., 2021 Bundestag: parties averaged within 1-2% deviation).^[94] However, transitions risk short-term disruption, as historical U.S. experiments with MMDs in the 19th century revealed bloc voting abuses before modern safeguards like RCV.^[29] Overall, such reforms target causal roots in plurality systems, supported by peer-reviewed models demonstrating 20-30% reductions in partisan bias metrics like the efficiency gap.^[153]^[160]

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2023 Review | Boundary Commission for England
We have now concluded the 2023 Review of Parliamentary constituencies in England, and submitted our final report and recommendations.
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Boundary review 2023: Which seats will change in the UK?
Mar 20, 2024 · Parliamentary constituency boundaries will change at the next UK general election. The four Boundary Commissions for England, Scotland ...
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UK constituency boundaries are being redrawn to make them more ...
Jan 23, 2024 · Thanks to political scientists Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, we now know how the 2019 election would have turned out if it had been ...
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The Return of the Gerrymander – Electoral Reform Society – ERS
Oct 30, 2016 · Gerrymandering is the process whereby politicians pick the voters they want to elect them. The word originates from 1812.Missing: United | Show results with:United
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Redistribution of Federal Electoral Districts 2022 – Elections Canada
Mar 23, 2025 · The Constitution of Canada requires that federal electoral districts be reviewed after each decennial (10-year) census to reflect changes and movements in ...The Representation Formula · House of Commons Seat · The role of the electoral...<|separator|>
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Gerrymandering is not just an American problem - The Hill
Oct 17, 2022 · Gerrymandering is rampant in the United States. The recent provincial election in Quebec suggests that the same malignancy exists there.
[119]
Australian elections: A unique democracy
Mar 25, 2025 · Federal elections in Australia are quite unique with a combination of key characteristics in place in Australia that differentiates Australian federal ...
[120]
Gerrymandering has no place in Australia - ABC News
Nov 13, 2014 · However, in the Australian political landscape, Joh's gerrymander, although long lasting, was unusual and considered pretty scandalous. When ...
[121]
Electoral gerrymandering in Kashmir another risk to stability
Dec 22, 2022 · Changes to electoral rules in Jammu and Kashmir, including the potential addition of 2.5 million new voters, have triggered outrage.
[122]
Forbes India Investigation: India's most gerrymandered constituencies
Apr 11, 2019 · According to a friend, the map of my assembly constituency (Padmanabhanagar in Bangalore South) looks like a hen doing ballet.
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Alternatives to American-Style Districting
America's approach to districting is both unique and by the standards of modern democracy, uniquely awful. · In Canada, for example, Elections Canada—a national ...<|separator|>
[124]
A wild gerrymander makes Hungary's Fidesz party hard to dislodge
Apr 2, 2022 · A populist conservative party is poised for victory. It leads polls by mid-single digits. It is also aided by gerrymandered districts.
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The “hacking” of a mixed electoral system: a case study of Hungary
Jun 20, 2025 · Following Hungary's 2010 parliamentary election, the Fidesz–KDNP government, as part of a comprehensive restructuring of the country's co.
[126]
Hungary's Manipulated Election - Project Syndicate
Apr 4, 2022 · BUDAPEST – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has just won a fourth term. In a democracy, such a victory would reflect the decision of the ...
[127]
Malapportionment in France, part I: Overview
Feb 8, 2024 · Research about the challenges posed by redistricting, such as gerrymandering and malapportionment, often focuses on American politics.
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The Guardian view on boundary changes: the voters draw the line
Jul 21, 2023 · Editorial: This week's byelections are a sharp reminder that a new political map of Britain is now up for grabs.Missing: United | Show results with:United
[129]
Gerrymandering Hypothesis in the Italian Constituencies
Dec 30, 2019 · Partisan gerrymandering to increase the power of a political party has been practiced since the beginning of the US. What's happening in Italy?
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[PDF] CDL-AD(2017)034 - Venice Commission of the Council of Europe
Dec 12, 2017 · 1. The issue of the allocation of seats to constituencies and constituency delineation - including gerrymandering - in particular, is crucial in ...
[131]
What the U.S. Can Learn From How Australia Votes | Pulitzer Center
Sep 24, 2024 · Australia doesn't have primaries or winner-take-all elections. Politicians aren't involved in redistricting, and voter suppression is ...
[132]
Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting ...
Mar 2, 2015 · The Arizona voters passed Proposition 106, which amended the state constitution to remove the congressional redistricting power from the legislature.
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California Citizens Redistricting Commission - Ballotpedia
The CCRC is responsible for drawing new Congressional, state legislative, and state board of equalization boundaries after every census.
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Redistricting commissions - Ballotpedia
Use in congressional and state legislative redistricting. Redistricting commissions for congressional districts. The map below shows the 11 states that use ...What is redistricting? · Use in congressional and state... · Support and opposition
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Who Controlled Redistricting in Every State
Oct 5, 2022 · While most congressional districts were drawn in partisan processes this redistricting cycle, state courts and independent commissions played a bigger role ...
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Independent Redistricting Commissions Are Associated with More ...
Jan 12, 2023 · Independent commissions are 2.25 times more likely to have competitive elections, and they decrease incumbent party wins by 52%.<|separator|>
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Assessing California's Redistricting Commission: Effects on Partisan ...
This report evaluates election outcomes under the CRC plan using two new measures of partisan gerrymandering, as well as established metrics of competitiveness.
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The Rise and Fall of Redistricting Commissions: Lessons from the ...
Oct 24, 2022 · I would know—I serve as chair of the New York State Independent Redistricting Commission, which failed spectacularly after we were unable to ...
[139]
Anti-Gerrymandering Reforms Had Mixed Results
Sep 19, 2022 · Redistricting reforms creating independent redistricting commissions resulted in fairer maps, while less robust reforms struggled.
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https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5649172
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Modeling the effect of mandatory district compactness on partisan ...
Geographic compactness standards have been offered as neutral and effective standards constraining redistricting. In this paper, we test this allegation.
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Gerrymandering and computational redistricting - PMC
Partisan gerrymandering poses a threat to democracy. Moreover, the complexity of the districting task may exceed human capacities. One potential solution is ...<|separator|>
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Splitline districtings of all 50 states + DC + PR - RangeVoting.org
We give permission to all to re-use these images provided they cite the Center for Range Voting, this web page, and us; the Shortest Splitline algorithm was ...
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https://www.caliper.com/glossary/what-is-a-splitline-algorithm.htm
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Gerrymandering and a cure - shortest splitline algorithm
Our simple splitting algorithm draw the congressional districts is obvious. There is one and only one drawing possible given the number of districts wanted.
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An algorithm to detect gerrymandering - Harvard Gazette
Nov 3, 2022 · Harvard team's tool maps out thousands of nonpartisan options, simulates outcomes, holds up results to those of proposed plans.
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Simulated redistricting plans for the analysis and evaluation ... - Nature
Nov 11, 2022 · This article introduces the 50stateSimulations, a collection of simulated congressional districting plans and underlying code developed by ...
[148]
BARD: Better Automated Redistricting | Journal of Statistical Software
Jun 14, 2011 · BARD provides methods to create, display, compare, edit, automatically refine, evaluate, and profile political districting plans.
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A Uniformly Random Solution to Algorithmic Redistricting - arXiv
Feb 21, 2024 · The process of drawing electoral district boundaries is known as political redistricting. Within this context, gerrymandering is the ...
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MGGG Redistricting Lab: Our Mission
A nonpartisan research organization studying applications of geometry.
[151]
How to end gerrymandering - Protect Democracy
Aug 20, 2025 · Under a single-member district system, gerrymandering is difficult to shake, but proportional representation provides a solution.Missing: explanation | Show results with:explanation
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“PR” Should Stand for Proportional Representation, Not Petty ...
Aug 6, 2025 · Every 10 years, states redraw their legislative and congressional maps based on new census data in a process known as redistricting. While meant ...Missing: House | Show results with:House
[153]
Ranked choice, multimember districts blunts gerrymandering
Sep 23, 2021 · Ranked-choice voting, combined with multi-member legislative districts, promotes fair representation, particularly when it comes to blunting gerrymandering.
[154]
Proportional representation is the solution to gerrymandering
Aug 11, 2025 · Democratic state legislators from Texas are on the run, trying to deny the GOP the quorum it needs to push through a mid-decade ...
[155]
House Delegation Reintroduces Fair Representation Act to Reform ...
Jul 23, 2025 · ... redistricting commissions and would require ranked choice voting to elect U.S. Senators. “Hyperpartisan gerrymandering has suppressed ...
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FairVote celebrates reintroduction of the Fair Representation Act
Jul 23, 2025 · Bill would give voters more choice and more voice with ranked choice voting, stop gerrymandering with multi-member districts, ...
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Fair Representation Act - FairVote
Ranked choice voting in these elections; New requirements for congressional redistricting. Our traditional, winner-take all politics polarizes legislative ...
[158]
Opinion: Why ranked choice is the best cure for gerrymandering
Aug 14, 2025 · The issue of partisan gerrymandering is burning white hot right now as President Donald Trump has forced Texas Republicans to attempt a ...
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How to stop the gerrymandering wars and give every voter a voice
Aug 8, 2025 · A gerrymandering war has erupted across the nation, with Republicans and Democrats threatening to redraw congressional maps in their favor.<|separator|>
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Redistricting Reforms Reduce Gerrymandering by Constraining ...
Aug 10, 2025 · We study reform in American congressional redistricting, a political process often exploited by partisan actors to enact districting plans that ...