What Is Gerrymandering?

Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing electoral district boundaries in a way that gives one political party an unfair advantage over the other. The term dates to 1812, when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting plan that created a district shaped like a salamander to benefit his party. Today, gerrymandering takes two primary forms: packing, which concentrates the opposing party’s voters into a small number of districts to limit their overall representation, and cracking, which spreads the opposing party’s voters across multiple districts to dilute their voting power. Redistricting occurs every ten years following the census, when states redraw their congressional and state legislative district lines to reflect population changes. In most states, the redistricting process is controlled by the state legislature, which creates opportunities for the majority party to draw maps that favor its own candidates. Some states have adopted independent redistricting commissions to reduce partisan influence over the process.

This entry is part of the Republican Leaders Political Glossary, an educational reference on American government, legislative processes, and civic institutions.