What is gerrymandering?
Gerrymandering is the term used to describe the manipulation of voting district boundaries based on partisanship or race to achieve an unfair advantage.
To understand gerrymandering, it is important to understand the process of drawing district maps.
The U.S. Constitution requires the federal government to conduct a census every 10 years, in the years ending in zero. For example, a census was conducted in 2000, 2010, and 2020. This data-gathering process includes collecting detailed population information for every resident in the United States. This population data is then used to apportion the 435 congressional seats across all 50 states, and to redraw congressional and legislative district maps based on shifts in population. This data is also used for redistricting at the local level, including county boards, city councils and school districts.
Within each state, every district is required to have roughly the same population to comply with the concept of “one person, one vote,” which ensures that all of us can have the opportunity for equal representation in our government. Congressional districts are subject to stricter population equality requirements than state legislative or local districts. District populations used to vary widely, a practice that stopped after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in the 1960s.
In many states, the state legislature is in charge of drawing congressional and state legislative districts. In some states, redistricting commissions of various types draw them. Sophisticated map drawing software is used to draw district lines, meaning map drawers have access to partisan, racial and other data they can use to pinpoint and sort voters when they are deciding where to place district boundaries.
Equitable redistricting through fair maps plays a vital role in determining whether we will be able to make our voices heard on the issues that matter most to our communities.
Too often, when politicians control the map-drawing process, they create new districts for the purpose of making it easier for them or their political party to win elections, and to disadvantage voters based on partisanship or race. These gerrymandered maps artificially divide communities, unfairly dilute the voting power of particular groups within a state, and make representatives less responsive to the majority of their constituents.
Gerrymandered districts hurt voters, including voters with disfavored political preferences and Black and brown voters, by making it harder for them to elect their preferred candidates and have their voices heard in elections.
In 2025 and 2026, President Donald Trump triggered a gerrymandering race to the bottom by urging states to draw maps that would favor Republican candidates for Congress. That led to a highly unusual mid-decade congressional redistricting push in multiple states as states raced to redraw voting maps before the 2026 midterm elections. The result is unfair voting maps that fundamentally undermine the right of all Americans to equal representation in Congress.
Q: Where did the term gerrymandering come from?
A: Gerrymandering is practically as old as the country itself. The first recorded instance occurred in the late 1780s when James Madison was nearly gerrymandered out of a congressional seat.
However, the word did not become part of the lexicon until a few decades later. In 1812, Elbridge Gerry, a Founding Father who was the governor of Massachusetts at the time, approved a state Senate map with a salamander-shaped district that benefitted his own party, the Democratic-Republicans.
In response, the Boston Gazette published a “Gerry-mander” cartoon criticizing this district. Soon, the cartoon was reprinted by several newspapers that favored the opposing Federalist Party. Thus, the manipulation of district lines became known as gerrymandering.
Q: Historically, what are the main ways that political parties have gerrymandered maps to benefit themselves?
A: There are generally four ways that politicians gerrymander maps to disadvantage voters and instead advantage themselves or their political party. These are:
Malapportionment: Drawing districts with deliberate differences in population, which causes constituents in highly populous districts to have effectively less voting strength (drawn to disadvantage the opposite political party or voters of color) than their counterparts in more sparsely populated districts (drawn to advantage voters of the same political party as the map drawer).
Racial voting dilution: Redistricting plans that minimize or cancel the voting strength of voters of color.
Partisan gerrymandering: Creating maps or districts that enable a political party or incumbent to gain a systemic advantage.
Racial gerrymandering: Sorting voters into districts with a predominant focus on race.
Q: How exactly do politicians and political parties employ various tools to create gerrymandered maps?
A: The two most common methods that are used to create gerrymandered maps are cracking and packing.
Cracking is the practice of dividing a group’s supporters among multiple districts so that they fall short of a full majority in each district.
Packing is the practice of concentrating a group’s support heavily in a few districts so that the group wins significantly fewer districts than it would have had its supporters been spread out more evenly.
Q: What will happen to the redistricting process now that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has been limited?
A: The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA), which bans racial discrimination in voting, is one of the most important civil rights laws ever passed by Congress.
The VRA was passed to keep the promise of the 14th and 15th Amendments, which prohibit unequal treatment and the denial of the right to vote based on race. Since its passage, the VRA has been critical in the fight to ensure that no American is denied equal treatment in the political process based on their race.
A key piece of the VRA, Section 2, as amended by Congress in 1982 bans election systems or policies that intentionally restrict or undermine the power of voters of color, as well as those that result in such unequal treatment. This includes voting districts that dilute the voting strength of voters, where plaintiffs can meet certain conditions as set out by the Supreme Court in 1986.
Voting rights advocates often rely on Section 2 of the VRA to sue over maps that unfairly discriminate against voters of color. But in April 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court significantly altered the burden for proving claims under Section 2 in Louisiana v. Callais. Specifically, the Court’s ruling makes it more difficult for plaintiffs to prove the necessary conditions to establish a Section 2 claim and makes it easier for states to engage in racial vote dilution and partisan gerrymandering, particularly impacting Black and brown voters.
Because of this ruling, voters will have to clear new hurdles, and states can defend against virtually any claim of racially discriminatory map-drawing simply by claiming they engaged in partisan gerrymandering. Race and partisanship are often difficult to disentangle, especially in the South.
Q: How does gerrymandering contribute to other political issues we are currently facing in our democracy?
A: Gerrymandering reshapes incentives so that politicians are less likely to engage in consensus-building within their districts and more likely to channel the passion of base voters in primaries, contributing to extremism in our political system. Gerrymandering even played a role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Q: Are there solutions that would enable us to combat gerrymandering?
A: Yes, there are. We've outlined them in greater detail here.
But, simply put: Congress should pass legislation banning partisan gerrymandering and establishing neutral redistricting criteria to use in drawing maps, while also allowing for resolution of disputes.
We also have long supported independent redistricting commissions, which you can learn more about here.
At the end of the day, what we need is a national effort to prevent gerrymandering across the country once and for all.