Monday, May 26, 2014

States are becoming more gerrymandered over time

The Washington Post has a great article illustrating the increased tendency of states to draw legislative districts in ways that enhance the power of whichever political party dominates the state.

- Click here for the article.

The concept is called gerrymandering - which you should know by now if you've been reading your notes - and will likely be covered in your final. One of the features of gerrymandered districts is their unusual shapes, these are necessary in order to contain as many partisans - reliable Democratic or Republican voters - in single districts. This is how state legislatures can guarantee that a specific district remain in Democratic or Republican hands.

The author highlights changes in the design of these two districts over the past 50 years to make his point:

maryland-03

pa-07