Gerrymandering: See How A Lizard and a Politician Have Created A Tool to Undo Democracy

By

William A. Gralnick

For anyone who follows the political news, the term Gerrymandering is all over it. Understanding where the term comes from, what it means, and how it works is critical for those who know and those who don’t know. Let’s begin with its meaning.

According to Meriam Webster, Gerrymandering is the practice of dividing or arranging a territorial unit into election districts in a way that gives one political party an unfair advantage in elections. Three others representing diverse fields weigh in. Writer, commentator and former reporter for the Miami Carl Hiaasen commented, To an untrained eye, the proposed boundaries look like etchings of a mapmaker on heavy pharmaceuticals. In reality, it is a masterpiece of diabolical gerrymandering.

Journalists Amanda Salazar pointed out that after nearly a decade of representing adjacent Brooklyn communities in Congress, Hakeem Jeffries and Yvette Clarke almost had an unexpected and new primary election where they would have faced off against each other. This resulted as the New York Independent Redistricting Committee reapportioned districts. Were it not for a battle in the courts and in public opinion, the original map would not have been ruled unconstitutional, another map rejected that was drawn by a consultant, and there would have been a 50–50 chance that Hakeem Jeffries wouldn’t be minority leader of the House.