voting rights advancement act

This is the second in a two-part series examining how the political landscape has been affected by partisan gerrymandering and changes to voting rights. Read part one.

Gerrymandering remains alive and well in the United States, despite the growth of nonpartisan redistricting commissions and legal efforts to take the politics out of the mapmaking process.

Redistricting is supposed to give equal representation to everyone in a state following the decennial. But by either spreading the opposition party’s voters around (cracking) or concentrating them in few districts (packing), lawmakers have the ability to limit competition and create a scenario in which they “choose their voters ... rather than voters choosing their representatives,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Anti-gerrymandering activists view these maneuvers as an attack on American democracy and they have attempted to end the practice through lawsuits and legislation. But, in most of the country, partisans continue to own the redistricting practice, which goes a long way toward determining who wins elections.