When President Trump asked the legislature of Texas to rework their congressional maps for the next three election cycles, it triggered a cascading effect. Other states such as California and Ohio began to call for mid-decade redistricting.
Gerrymandering is the process of shaping electoral lines in order to benefit one’s political party. Politicians controlling our state redistricting processes is bad for our democracy. A federal ban on gerrymandering would help increase voter turnout for all ages and regions in the United States.
Gerrymandering gives politicians in one party an advantage of control of their respective state. For example, if one party has control in the senate, house and governorship, also known as a trifecta, the party could opt to further their power by drawing congressional seats in their favor.
States that have trifectas such as Illinois and Texas can draw congressional maps that misrepresent voters. This is a ridiculous misuse of state power. State power should be reserved for helping people and not directly contradicting the beliefs of the other side.
In the 2024 General election 14 of Illinois’ 17 congressional districts went to democrats, even though former Vice President Kamala Harris only won Illinois by a 55% to 44% percent margin. That means that a staggering 82% of congressional districts in Illinois were won by democrats while 18% were won by republicans.
Another example of gerrymandered maps is in the state of North Carolina. In the 2024 general election, President Donald Trump narrowly won the state of North Carolina by a margin of 51% to 48%. While 10 of the 14 North Carolina congressional districts went to the republicans by a margin of 72% to 28%.
Gerrymandering weakens trust in our government. Without having a voice in their district, many people feel left out of our democracy and indifferent to voting in crucial elections.
One way to combat gerrymandering would be to set up independent redistricting commissions. Four states, California, Arizona, Colorado and Michigan have independent commissions.
Independent redistricting commissions try to make sure that state’s congressional maps are even and accurate for the given state. They are typically controlled by non-partisan citizens of the state who try to draw even districts. But even that system has its flaws.
The flaws come in the form of California’s so-called independent redistricting commission.
In the 2024 general election, Californians voted by a 58% to 38% margin for Kamala Harris. But their congressional delegation has 43 democrats compared to nine republicans. This made for a staggering 83% of their congressional seats allocated to democrats while only 17% were made for the republicans.
An independent redistricting commission is not the perfect or only solution to solve the problem of gerrymandering. A federal ban on gerrymandering would assist in making our congressional districts more fair for everyone.
Gerrymandering is a threat to our sacred democracy. The United States is one of the only countries in the world where the federal government does not draw districts to represent people. Too often, it gets manipulated by greedy politicians looking to serve for life. In order to have fair representation, we need a national solution.
States currently have full say in regards to what they want to do when it comes to redistricting. A federal ban would stop that and ensure that the people get fair congressional representation in their respective states.
Call your representatives and demand action for fair maps for our next election because our democracy works best when it is actually working for you.