What is gerrymandering?

Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing electoral district boundaries to give one political party an unfair advantage. The term was coined in 1812 after Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting plan that produced a district shaped like a salamander. It works through two techniques: packing (cramming opposing voters into as few districts as possible) and cracking (splitting opposing voters across many districts so they can never quite reach a majority anywhere).

How does gerrymandering actually work?

Mapmakers use two complementary techniques. Packing concentrates the opposition into a small number of districts where they win by huge, wasted margins. Cracking splits the opposition across many districts so they fall just short of 50% in each. Modern voter databases let politicians do this with household-level precision, producing maps where one party can win a majority of the votes but only a minority of the seats — by design.

Why is gerrymandering legal in the United States?

In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause that partisan gerrymandering claims are non-justiciable in federal court, meaning federal judges cannot strike down maps for being partisan no matter how extreme. State courts and legislatures retain authority to address it, but most state legislatures are themselves drawn by the gerrymanderers — leaving the fox in charge of the henhouse audit.

Do both Democrats and Republicans gerrymander?

Yes, both parties gerrymander where they have the power to. Maryland's congressional map is a prominent Democratic example. But there is a significant asymmetry: Republican-drawn maps tend to produce more permanent safe seats, while Democratic-drawn maps tend to produce more competitive ones. The Brennan Center's 2024 analysis found that Democratic gerrymanders are 'far less reliable than those drawn by Republican counterparts.' The 2010 REDMAP project, a $30M Republican operation to capture state legislatures specifically to control redistricting, industrialized the practice in a way Democrats never matched.

How can gerrymandering be fixed?

Three structural fixes have proven effective. First, independent redistricting commissions, which take map-drawing out of partisan hands — currently used in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Michigan. Commission-drawn maps produce 41% of America's competitive toss-up districts while drawing only 19% of total districts. Second, federal legislation like the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would set national fairness standards. Third, proportional representation with multi-member districts, which fundamentally restructures how votes translate to seats.

What are the most gerrymandered states?

Wisconsin is the most extreme documented case: a 2011 GOP-drawn map produced a 60-39 Republican Assembly majority despite Democrats winning more total votes. A Duke University study found the map more biased than 99% of 19,000 randomly generated alternatives. North Carolina, a perpetually 50-50 swing state, has been engineered into a 11-3 Republican delegation. Ohio's enacted map could produce a 12-3 Republican split versus a 9-6 split under a fair-map projection. Maryland is the most-cited Democratic counterexample.

How Gerrymandering Killed Competitive Elections (And What Would Fix It)

Q: Why have most US states stopped being competitive in House elections?

Two forces combined: geographic self-sorting (Americans increasingly cluster into ideologically homogeneous neighborhoods) and aggressive partisan gerrymandering that locks those patterns into permanent maps. In 1999, 164 of 435 House districts had Cook PVI scores between R+5 and D+5. Today, just 82 do — a 50% collapse in genuinely competitive seats. Gerrymandering didn't create the polarization, but it amplifies it and removes the safety valves that competitive elections would otherwise provide.

Doctor Paradox — Structural Sabotage

Volume I · Issue No. 1 · May 2026

The Gerrymandered
Republic

Of 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, 366 were effectively decided before voters cast a single ballot in 2024. This is not an accident of geography. It is a map, drawn by hand, with software, on purpose.

85%

of U.S. House seats were rated as uncompetitive in the 2024 general election. The other 15% chose the country's leadership for everyone.

Source: Cook Political Report 2024 House Race Ratings (69 of 435 seats competitive)

The receipts: votes don't equal seats

Vote share vs. seat share, by state

Wisconsin

Act 43 · 2011

Republican-drawn 2011 map. A Duke University study of 19,000 randomly drawn alternatives found the actual map more biased than 99% of them.

Dem. statewide vote, 2012 ~51%

Dem. seats won 39 / 99

Republican Assembly seats out of 99 — won with a minority of the statewide vote.

N. Carolina

Map · 2024

A perpetual 50/50 swing state. Engineered into a permanent Republican delegation. Median fair-map alternative would produce 6 Democratic seats.

Fair-map projection 6 of 14

Enacted map projection 3 of 14

Only ONE of N. Carolina's 14 congressional districts was rated competitive in 2024.

Ohio

Map · 2024

2022 produced a 10–5 GOP split. The 2024 map could expand it to 12–3. Median fair-map projection: 6 Democratic seats. Engineered down to 3.

Fair-map projection 6 of 15

Enacted map projection 3 of 15

Half of Ohio's natural Democratic representation, deleted with a pen.

Maryland

Counter-example

Both parties gerrymander where they can. Maryland is Democrats' embarrassment. But Dem maps tend to produce competitive seats, not safe ones.

GOP statewide vote share ~36%

GOP seats won 1 / 8

≠

Same crime, different weapon. Dem gerrymanders create swing seats; GOP ones create safe ones.

The measure

The efficiency gap

Devised in 2015 by Nicholas Stephanopoulos and Eric McGhee. It measures the difference between the parties' wasted votes — any vote for a losing candidate, or any vote above 50% for the winner — divided by total votes cast.

Above 7% is considered extreme. Wisconsin's Act 43 has measured between 9% and 14%. North Carolina's recent maps have been worse.

The middle, hunted to extinction

Swing seats in the U.S. House · 1997–2025

The swing seat — a House district that could plausibly go either way — is functionally an endangered species.

In 1999, 164 of 435 House districts had Cook PVI scores between D+5 and R+5. Today, just 82 do. A 50% collapse in the middle of American politics.

PVI gap between
median D and R seat, 1997

PVI gap between
median D and R seat, 2025

Toss-up districts
in the entire South

The fastest-growing region in America has the least responsive politics in America. Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston — the diversifying suburbs that should be the battleground of the decade — have been decided in advance by the cartographer.

The fix is not theoretical

Where independent commissions draw maps

19%

of districts

Drawn by independent commissions — in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Michigan.

41%

of toss-ups

Of America's competitive 2024 toss-up districts came from those same commission states.

60%

of districts

Drawn under single-party control. They produced just one-third of toss-up races.

"The system isn't broken.
It's working exactly as designed by the people who designed it —
and they redesign it every decade in their favor."

· Structural Sabotage № 01 · The Gerrymandered Republic

Next in series: how primaries weaponize safe seats

Sources: Cook Political Report (2024 House Race Ratings; PVI historical data 1997–2025) · Brennan Center for Justice (How Gerrymandering Tilts the 2024 Race for the House) · University of Chicago Law School (Stephanopoulos / McGhee efficiency gap) · Duke University (Wisconsin map simulation study) · Unite America (Research Brief on Competitive Elections)