2021 Census data shows that the US has increasingly grown more diverse over the past 10 years. For the first time in history, Asian and multiracial communities grew rapidly, while the white population declined. Although whites are still the largest group in the nation, it did shrink by 8.6% from 2010-2020. The Hispanic population grew by 23%, the Asian population by 35%, and the African American population by 5.6%. According to the census, the multiracial population grew the fastest among other groups over the past decade, with a 276% increase.
It’s no secret that changing demographics and voting rights are at the forefront of recent battles all across the country to redraw US congressional districts. Redistricting has always been a part of the political process, and adjusts political lines for population growth and to ensure equal representation of voters. But as our country becomes increasingly polarized, the process has become a partisan fistfight as lawmakers in both the GOP and the Democratic Party seek to gain political advantages in many states.
GOP state legislators control much more of the redistricting process than Democrats, and in anticipation of the 2022 midterms, Republicans have moved to secure a political advantage. For example, in North Carolina, the Republican-dominated legislature enacted redistricting laws that ignored minority data. In Ohio, the final district map for the Cincinnati metro area split its diverse suburbs in Hamilton County into three different districts, lumping urban and mostly Democratic voters with more rural, conservative voters. But it’s not just the Republicans, the Illinois redistricting map gives Democrats control of 14 of the state’s 17 seats.
Here in the Land of Enchantment, legislators, this week delayed a vote on a redistricting bill that would help protect two Republican senators but leave one predominantly populated Native American district at a disadvantage. One proposed redistricting map for New Mexico places Senate District 30 along the state’s western border that would extend into rural Catron County, a heavily Republican area.
The most alarming fact about the recent spate of redistricting legislation is that Republicans hold power in enough states to control the redistricting process for 187 of the US House’s 435 seats. This is in comparison to 75 Democrat-influenced seats. This fact is making Democrats very nervous for 2022 and 2024.
Gerrymandering gives Republicans a clear advantage, and although redistricting is not just limited to red states, recent re-drawing of districts has raised concerns that minority, Hispanic, and voters of color will get sidelined even though they are emerging as a larger share of the US population.
The practice of manipulating voting districts to secure political power has a long, sordid history. In 18th-century England, political organizations created “rotten boroughs” that allowed only certain voters to cast ballots, making it easy for politicians to buy votes and gain Parliament seats. This practice continued across the pond to the colonies in the 18th and 19th centuries, where Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina drew districts that benefited certain candidates. After the Civil War and during the Reconstruction era, black men won the right to vote, and gerrymandering went into 5th gear. The majority of southern states re-drew districts to maximize the electoral advantage for the Democratic Party (which most white southern voters supported at the time), over the Republican Party (which most Black voters supported). During this period, states started to draw what was referred to as “long stringy districts,” where the goal was to concentrate as many Black voters as possible into one district so that the rest of the districts would have a white majority.
It wasn’t until the 1960’s that when the U.S. Supreme Court changed the practice of gerrymandering with a series of court decisions known as the “redistricting revolution.” Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled that all state voting districts need roughly equal populations and that states must adjust their federal congressional districts after every 10-year census. This way, each of the 435 members in the US House would represent roughly an equal number of people.
The redistricting revolution coupled with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, these Supreme Court decisions ensured that voters (even of color) were equally represented in their state legislatures. However, here we are a few decades later, where political operatives have turned to technology to strategically map districts to benefit their party under these rules.
Passing US legislation at the federal level needs to happen in order to combat gerrymandering and the practice of politicians picking their voters. This includes passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would restore the preclearance requirement for Southern states, and passing the For the People Act, which would ban partisan gerrymandering.