Our democracy depends on “one person, one vote,” and the idea that we each have an equal chance of having our ideas represented in all levels of government. Yet, advances in computing and mathematics have enabled computer-enhanced gerrymandering in many states. The resulting districts, while equal in number of people, favor those in power over challengers in ways never before possible.
SEA Board Member Dr. Daniel Goroff, together with Dr. Daniel Ullman of The George Washington University, have organized a Special Session at the 2009 Joint Mathematics Meeting to discuss the problem of redistricting. Top experts and practitioners in redistricting law, political science, statistics, game theory, computer science, and mathematics will discuss both imaginative proposals as well as the practical difficulties of improving how we draw voting districts in the United States at the Marriot Wardman Park on January 8, 2009, from 1:00 p.m. to 6:50 p.m. EST.
How Redistricting Works
The US House of Representatives has 435 voting members. Although each state is entitled to one representative, the number of representatives for each state is proportional to its population. California, the most populous state, currently has 53 House Representatives in the 110th Congress, one elected from each of the state’s 53 legislative districts. Supreme Court rulings in the 1960s established that legislative districts must be of equal population.1 Therefore, after the Census every 10 years, states are required to redistrict, or to redraw electoral district lines, to maintain population equality. Faster growing states may see an increase in their share of representatives in the House, while states with shrinking or stagnant populations may lose representatives. For example, after the 2000 Census New York lost two of its 31 legislative districts and representatives.2
Find your representatives and legislative districts
Determining District Lines
States regulate redistricting timing. Many states interpreted the Supreme Court rulings of the 1960s to mean that although redistricting must be done decennially, it may also be conducted in the interim. In some states, the State Legislature draws district boundaries. Other states use an independent committee to determine new lines.
States with independent redistricting comissions
Five states have created an independent body to oversee redistricting.
- Arizona
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- New Jersey
- Washington
California passed a state proposition to created an independent redistricting commission in 2008.
Thank you Texas
A particularly controversial example of redistricting occurred in Texas in 2003. Even though Texas consistently votes Republican in presidential elections, the Texas State legislature has been dominated by Democrats. In 1992, 50% of state votes went to Republicans, but Republicans gained only 30% of the state’s congressional seats. Following the 2000 census, a 3-judge panel redistricted the state because the legislature could not reach an agreement, although little was changed. In 2003, the legislature again worked to create a new redistricting plan, even though that normally occurs only once a decade. Democrats in the state Senate fled to New Mexico to block the legislative efforts. A compromise plan was reached later that year, which did increase Republican representation, although one district was found to dilute minority voting rights under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and ordered to be redrawn.3
Learn more
- Try doing it yourself with The Redistricting Game by the USC Annenberg Center.
- Redistricting Roulette at Fair Vote is a simple demonstration of how adjusting district lines can have a vast impact on who gets elected.
- Redistricting at Common Cause has up-to-date information on state-based reform efforts.
- Americans for Redistricting Reform has great resources for state and national redistricting reform efforts and information on other organizations who also care about redistricting.
- League of Women Voters: Redistricting Reform Project.
The Redistricting Project in the News
- Interview: Jim Bozeman on using math for legislative redistricting. (Vermont Edition, March 3, 2009)
- Legislative Redistricting 2010, The Philidelphia Jewish Voice
- Mathematician answers Supreme Court Plea (Science News, February 24, 2009)
- Can Mathematics Map the Way Toward Less-Bizarre Elections? (Science Magazine, February 13, 2009)
- Of the Algorithms, by the Algorithms, for the Algorithms (Slate, Chris Wilson, January 13, 2009)
Footnotes
- 1. Justin Levitt and Michael P. McDonald. The Law of Politics: The Role of Law in Advancing Democracy: Taking the “Re” out of Redistricting: State Constitutional Provisions on Redistricting Timing. 95 Geo. L. J. 1247 (2007).
- 2. FairVote.org, New York Redistricting 2000.
- 3. Dan Eggen, Justice Staff Saw Texas Districting As Illegal.
