Thinking about Elections

GERRYMANDERING. You don’t have to be a political scientist or mathematician to see that your state’s congressional voting districts are probably gerrymandered. Look at the counties. How many are divided between two, three, four districts or more? Look at major cities to see whether they are sliced apart into different districts. This is a rough first pass at assessing gerrymandering, but it is telling. Map makers have choices. Question why they split the counties and cities into separate districts. Counties and cities are administrative districts with common interests. They should be left intact if at all possible. (Sometimes this cannot be done for legitimate reasons, for instance voting districts must have equal population, but still when you see it question it.)

Years ago when I first began working to end gerrymandering in Ohio, one county was split into four separate congressional districts. Cities were sliced into different districts. Eastern Toledo was in the same district as western Cleveland—the district stretched along the south shore of Lake Erie. In some places it was no wider than the road. Cincinnati was sliced in two. The eastern half was in a district stretching eastward to include seven rural counties. The western half had a narrow land bridge joining it to another county. The mapmakers deliberately chose to do this to dilute the vote in the cities.

Mathematicians and political scientists are key in gerrymandering the maps and in evaluating maps to show they are gerrymandered, but anyone can look at their state’s maps and raise questions based on splits they see.

Two links here. One evaluates the fairness of electoral district maps. The other tracks mid-decade redistricting (This is a moving target so might not be fully current.)

https://planscore.org/#!2026-ushouse

https://www.ncsl.org/redistricting-and-census/changing-the-maps-tracking-mid-decade-redistricting?utm_source=act-on+software&utm_term=hanging the maps: tracking mid-decade redistricting&utm_campaign=up in the air: elections landscape uncertain ahead of 2026&cm_mmc=act-on software-_-email-_-up in the air: elections landscape uncertain ahead of 2026-_-hanging the maps: tracking mid-decade