Gerrymandering has been taking place in this country since the early 1800s, but with the addition of new technology, gerrymandering has taken on a new level of sophistication in election rigging. Elections are still held, but gerrymandering gives incumbents the ability to hold power for long periods of time with little interference, lessening the ability of voters to throw out those politicians who have ceased to be effective.

While gerrymandering has always attempted to create districts favorable to the party in charge of reapportionment, recently it has developed as both a science and an art. The addition of computer modeling to the process has added a level of refinement unseen in the past. Sophisticated computer models allow reapportionment officials to make decisions on where to draw district lines with extreme precision, nearly down to the level that they can predict the political leanings of an individual household just based on the address.
This leads to circuitous districts that meet continuity requirements by the narrowest of margins. These gerrymandered districts ignore traditional dividing lines such as cities and counties in favor of partisan strongholds. This divides groups that should have shared interests and stifles debate instead of encouraging it.

The prevalence of gerrymandering means that in modern politics, the majority of seats are safe. This not only solidifies the number of seats each party has to represent them, but it also entrenches career politicians, regardless of their effectiveness. When a politician faces little challenge from the other party, it is also unlikely that they will face a challenge from their own party. This creates politicians who are more beholden to special interests than their own constituents, because their own constituents will vote them in largely by default.

This practice also serves to skew the proportional representation that is supposed to occur in the House of Representatives. A good example of this is currently taking place in Ohio, where Democrats are attempting to hold a referendum on the controversial congressional district lines drawn up by the Republican controlled reapportionment board. While Ohio is split almost evenly 50/50 in the number of Republican and Democratic voters, the Republican drawn map creates 12 Republican leaning districts out of the state’s 16.

While it is logical that those in power would want to hold on to that power, this is not in the best interest of American citizens. Our elections should give us a choice, but due to gerrymandering the idea of choice is often an illusion. Bad policies are perpetuated by politicians who are not held accountable, and gerrymandering makes it more difficult to get those politicians out of office. This practice needs to be changed for the betterment of the American government and the American people.

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