Reapportionment
and Gerrymandering
Membership of the House
• How is this decided?
• Based on population
• California has 53
• Texas has 36 representatives
• 6 states have the minimum of 1
• United States Census Bureau
• Every ten Years
• Reapportionment
• Dividing up the 435 by 50 states
• Over the last 20 years, western and southern states have gained seats
• northern and mid-western states have lost seats
• What happens when a state loses or gains seats in the House …
• Redistricting and Gerrymandering
Redistricting
• Redistricting
• redrawing of congressional district lines
• Texas Congressional Districts
• “One-person, One-Vote”
• everybody's representation must be relatively equal
• Criticisms
• the current method of redistricting is unfair
• Gerrymandering
• Redrawing the district lines to favor a certain political party
• Video
• What is “packing” a district?
• redrawing lines to put your opponents in as few districts as possible
• What is “cracking” a district?
• Spreading out the votes your opponent has to water down their
influence
Gerrymandering
• Imagine it is 2020.
The national
government has just
completed the
census and our state
is to be divided into 5
congressional
districts.
• We are going to look
at several ways to
draw the lines to
demonstrate how
state legislatures
gerrymander their
states.
Party A
Party B
Gerrymandering
• Perfect
Representation
• Each district must
have 10 “counties”
• Each “county” in a
district must share a
side with at least
another “county” in
the district
• Make is as equal as
possible – draw your
lines so that each
party gets as many
districts as possible
according to their
population.
Party A
Party B
Gerrymandering
• Cracking
• Each district must
have 10 “counties”
• Each “county” in a
district must share a
side with at least
another “county” in
the district
• Make it so that Party
B will control each of
the 5 districts. – In
order to do this, you
must mix Party A
with Party B.
Party A
Party B
Gerrymandering
• Packing
• Each district must
have 10 “counties”
• Each “county” in a
district must share a
side with at least
another “county” in
the district
• Draw the lines to put
Party A in control of
a majority of the
districts.
Party A
Party B
Exit Ticket
• 5 Districts
• Each District has to be at least 4 “counties” and no
more than 5 “counties”
• Top
• 4 Republican Districts
• 1 Democrat District
• Bottom
• At least 3 Democratic Districts