By: Kayley Bell, Door County
Gerrymandering is the appointment of voters in districts in such a way as to give an unfair advantage to one racial or ethnic group or political party. Gerrymandering does not help ensure fairness in representation, but rather leads to the underrepresentation of minorities and causes the legislatures elected to potentially not be the ones desired by the people.
The first reason why gerrymandering does not help ensure fairness in representation is that it leads to the underrepresentation of minorities. Gerrymandering is set up to favor the majority, typically the majority political party. This can lead to the underrepresentation of minority voters based on sex, race, religion, ethnicity, etc. Currently, the voting trend is that African Americans tend to vote Democrat. If Republican leadership was in charge of redistricting, the process of redrawing election districts and redistributing legislative representatives, they may use one of two forms of partisan gerrymandering known as ‘cracking’ or ‘packing’ with the goal of minimizing the impact of the African American vote to help favor Republicans in elections. ‘Cracking’ is the practice of diluting the voting power of the opposing power by spreading their supporters out among different districts, thus making them a minority opinion. The other form of gerrymandering is ‘packing’. ‘Packing’ is concentrating the opposing party’s voting power in one district to help decrease their voting power in other districts. If they chose to practice cracking, they would look at the state population data and shape the districts in ways that split up the African American population. If they were packing, they would encompass a large African American population into one or a few districts. However, the practice of gerrymandering and redistricting solely based on race became unconstitutional via the ruling of the Supreme Court case Shaw v. Reno (1993). Shaw v. Reno further declared that redistricting must be in compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and that redistricting based on race must be held to a standard of strict scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. To put it in exact words, in Shaw v. Reno (1993), the Court ruled that “electoral districts whose boundaries cannot be explained except on the basis of race can be challenged as potential violations of the equal protection clause, and in Miller v. Johnson (1995) it held that the equal protection clause also prohibits the use of race as the ‘predominant factor’ in drawing electoral-district boundaries.” Under the 14th Amendment, every US citizen is entitled to equal protection under the laws, and they cannot be discriminated against on the basis of national origin, race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, etc. Therefore, gerrymandering practices do not help ensure fairness in representation because they walk a fine line Constitutionally as to if they are sometimes discriminatory or not. Also, section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership of certain language minority groups.
Gerrymandering can also lead to the polls and what legislators are elected, in reality, not representing the actual desires of a large demographic. In other words, the interest of the people may not be fully represented. Every US citizen has the right to vote, although gerrymandering practices can lead to the devaluation of votes. There could be, for example, a Republican majority in favor of electing a certain candidate, but if the Democrats were in charge of redistricting they could manipulate the districts so that they win, even if it is not what the actual majority wants. For example, the Republican party in 2018 maintained majority control over the House despite having a minority of votes in the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Carolina even though the majority of voters in that state voted for Democrat representation.
Some proponents of gerrymandering practices argue that gerrymandering leads to better representation of the majority. Although it may help empower certain groups, it can also deflate the power of other groups that are also a large part of the population. For example, 14.2% of the United States population is black. Although gerrymandering may help increase the voting power of a majority of, for example, the at least 60% of the population that is white, it devalues the vote of 14.2% of the population. Although this may not seem like a large percentage, that is the equivalent of over 4 million people. The reality is that every vote is valid and equal, and no vote should be put above another– regardless of whether it helps a “majority” or not.
In conclusion, gerrymandering does not help ensure fairness in voting because it can cause the dilution of the influence of the minority vote and cause the results of elections to differ from the opinions and desires of a large segment of the population. Every voice and vote of every US citizen is valid and important, and that should not be able to be devalued by petty partisan gerrymandering practices.