Are Our Elections RIGGED?

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: NATIONAL - Gerrymandering

Critics say gerrymandering has distorted American democracy. Will the Supreme Court put an end to it?

Wisconsin has about as many Democrats as Republicans, but you wouldn't know that from looking at the Wisconsin state legislature. Republicans hold 65 percent of the seats--a bigger majority than Republican legislators have in a solidly conservative state like Texas.

How is that possible? The answer is gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering occurs when politicians draw election district maps in a way that gives their party an advantage. After the 2010 Census, Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin redrew maps that concentrated as many Democratic voters as possible into a small number of urban districts, removing them from other districts that would have otherwise been competitive.

The new maps changed nothing about where people lived--only the district in which their votes were counted. Rearranging districts helped Republicans transform very close statewide vote totals into lopsided legislative majorities. In 2012, the election year the new district maps took effect, Republicans won less than 49 percent of the total votes statewide for state assembly candidates but captured 60 of the body's 99 seats.

The situation in Wisconsin is the focus of a Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality of gerrymandering. The case, Gill v. Whitford, will be decided this spring, along with a second case, Benisek v. Lamone, that challenges partisan gerrymandering by Democrats in Maryland. The two cases have huge implications for American democracy. Here are some questions and answers to help you understand why.

Why is gerrymandering a big deal?

Gerrymandering is common practice across the country; both Democrats and Republicans do it--in both statehouse and congressional districts.

Experts say gerrymandering has greatly reduced the number of competitive elections, contributed to partisan gridlock in Washington, and created a situation in which lawmakers don't reflect the political makeup of the population.

"It's easy to draw maps that essentially rig the results one way or the other," says Michael Li, an expert in gerrymandering at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. "What that means is that Congress doesn't look like America; it's not representative. And that's not what the Framers wanted; they thought the House of Representatives should reflect the people."

When did the practice start?

Gerrymandering is almost as old as the nation. The...