Blog #8- Gerrymandering

America’s most gerrymandered congressional districts- Christopher Ingraham

“...the point of gerrymandering isn't to draw yourself a collection of overwhelmingly safe seats. Rather, it's to give your opponents a small number of safe seats, while drawing yourself a larger number of seats that are not quite as safe, but that you can expect to win comfortably.”

Gerrymandering is the act of manipulating the boundaries of a district so  that one political party can have an advantage over the other (Democrats vs. Republicans). Christopher Ingraham describes in his article on the Washington Post, the purpose of gerrymandering and gave a run down on the most to least gerrymandered states. The most gerrymandered districts have been redrawn numerous times to satisfy the political power in power and create a disadvantage for the opposing one. States like Maryland and North Carolina are the two most gerrymandered states today because their numbers are consistently high. I’m 2013, the Democrats were short by 18 seats because Republicans managed to draw congressional districts that put them at them at a disadvantage. The point of gerrymandering is not necessarily to redraw the districts in a party’s favor, but to make sure that the opposing party does not have enough votes to win. So when they draw the new borders, they draw a line right through any districts that support the opposing party joining them to a group that favors their party reducing the likelihood of any competition. Drawing a large number may be risky because individuals are obligated to change their vote, but it is more likely that the party drawing the districts will win.

I chose this quote because prior to the videos and the article,  I did not know what Gerrymandering was. I had brushed on it in my senior year of high school, but it was not as detailed as the information that was given in the articles. This specific quote became easier to analyze after reading all the articles and gave me a better understanding of why and how state legislatures gerrymander.