Explained | Gerrymandering, a challenge to U.S. democracy?

What is redistricting? How is it becoming a decisive factor in U.S. electoral politics?

Redistricting, the process of redrawing electoral boundaries, is conducted across U.S. Congressional and State legislative districts every decade, following the publication of the results of the population census. The principle behind redistricting is to ensure that the election of public officials embodies the ideal of genuine democratic representation, by factoring in changes in the geographic distribution of population. At the present juncture, the 2020 census results came in late, in August 2021, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following this, in several ‘swing states’, or states that could potentially vote for members of either major political party, including Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, Republican State legislators have successfully gerrymandered their respective electoral districts to build up “supermajorities” that could potentially overrule the diktats of a Democratic Governor. This process leaves worrying questions on democratic representation unanswered, because in such cases, Democratic Party supporters in these states have virtually no constitutional means to change the leadership of their legislatures, a hallmark of substantive democracy. The gerrymandering issue becomes even more salient given that the U.S. Congress is virtually gridlocked on most major policy issues, leaving vital questions in areas such as reproductive rights, gun control and healthcare reform in the hands of State authorities to implement or not as they choose.

During the redistricting cycle that kicked off a decade ago, Republicans in battleground states such as Michigan Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin Michigan redrew State legislative district boundaries to favour their party’s candidates. In the wake of that action, since 2011, Republicans have successfully held on to both houses of the State government in all three States for the best part of ten years. That this happened despite Democrats winning other key public posts including the office of Governor, demonstrates the considerable potential of gerrymandering to tip the scales towards one party in the long run. Yet this apparent loophole in democratic politics is not cast in stone, and even in the case of these three States, independent or bipartisan State legislature commissions are now taking up the cause of righting past wrongs and addressing the question of electoral map-making in a non-partisan manner.