How to gerrymander a political map Packing voters for the opposing party into one district hands them a win in that district. It also assures the other party more wins in the other districts, though with smaller margins. 5 districts 50 Precincts Green party 40% Yellow party 60% 2 5 N Proportional Gerrymandering 2020 Associated Press Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is the process of manipulating electoral districts in order to gain a political advantage. It refers to the practice of manipulating district boundaries to give a particular party or group a numerical advantage over its opponents. This can be done by either packing supporters of a party into one district, or by spreading them out across multiple districts in order to dilute their voting power. The practice of gerrymandering is used in order to gain an advantage in elections, and can be seen in countries around the world (Lijphart, 2019). In the United States, gerrymandering is used by political parties in order to gain an advantage in elections (Chang, 2020). This is done by manipulating district boundaries in order to create “safe” districts for a particular party, which can be accomplished by packing or spreading out its supporters. The resulting districts often look like odd shapes, and the term “gerrymander” is derived from the name of Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, who signed a bill that created a district that was said to resemble a salamander (Lijphart, 2019). Cont…