Reapportionment &
Redistricting
For the House of Representatives
 In the Senate, every state gets
represented by 2 senators regardless of
population
 In the House of Representatives,
representation is based on population…
 Every 10 years the Census Bureau
counts the population
 The population of each state determines
the number of representatives in the
House to which each state is entitled
 This process is called
Reapportionment after
2010 Census
 After reapportionment, state legislatures
set up congressional districts—one for
each representative in the House
 This process of setting up new district
lines is called
District lines around Los
Angeles
 The population in each congressional
district must be about the same—
currently around 700,000 people in each
district
 Districts must be compact and
contiguous
 Whichever political party controls the
state legislature controls redistricting
 Controlling parties often use this power
by
--drawing district boundaries to gain an
advantage in elections
 The goal is to send as many
representatives from your party to the
House as possible
 Gerrymandering Video
“Packing”
 including as many of the opponent’s voters
as possible into one district
 This weakens the opposing party by combining
many similar votes into one voting block, opening
up the other blocks for the minority party.
EXAMPLE of PACKING
Six districts: A, B, C, D, E, F
Two parties : X and Y
100 voters.
Majority in a district wins the district.
X has 60 % of the voters.
Y has 40 % of the voters.
-X has a majority of support in the population, but Y has the legislative majority.
- Y has the power to draw the district boundaries.
District Allocation:
A: 26 Voters from X, 1 from Y. (X wins district A)
B: 2 Voters from X, 10 from Y. (Y wins district B)
C: 2 Voters from X, 10 from Y. (Y wins district C)
D: 26 Voters from X, 1 from Y, (X wins district D)
E: 2 Voters from X, 10 from Y. (Y wins district E)
F: 2 Voters from X, 10 from Y. (Y wins district F)
Results :
TWO THIRDS of the legislative seats go to the minority party Y.
Example of “packing” in
North Carolina
Example of “packing” in
Illinois
“Cracking”
 dividing an opponent’s voters into many
different districts
 This weakens the opposing party by spreading
the vote out so they can overruled by the majority
party.
EXAMPLE of CRACKING
Six districts: A, B, C, D, E, F
Two parties : X and Y
100 voters.
Majority in a district wins the district.
X has 60 % of the voters.
Y has 40 % of the voters.
-X has a majority of support in the population, but Y has the legislative majority.
- Y has the power to draw the district boundaries.
District Allocation:
A; 9 Voters from X, 10 from Y. (Y wins district A)
B; 9 Voters from X, 10 from Y. (Y wins district B)
C; 9 Voters from X, 10 from Y. (Y wins district C)
D: 9 Voters from X, 10 from Y. (Y wins district D)
E: 12 Voters from X, 0 from Y. (X wins district E)
F: 12 Voters from X, 0 from Y. (X wins district F)
Results :
TWO THIRDS of the legislative seats go to the minority party Y.
Example of “cracking” in
Ohio
 Elbridge Gerry
 Massachusetts governor
 The “Gerrymander”
48th District
California 48th Congressional District
Representative for California’s
48th Congressional District
 Dana Rohrabacher – Republican