Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is also known as way to “manipulate boundaries to achieve a result”. The United States Congress is composed of both Republican and Democratic representatives however; the Republican representatives out numbers the Democratic representatives by 18 seats.  According to John Sides Gerrymandering is not the reason behind the division in congress. He argues that the cause for such division has to do with the geographic location and shape of each individual state. John Sides states, “ Districts that follow a generally regular shape tend to be compact, while  those that have a lot of squiggles and offshoots and tentacle- looking protuberances tend to score poorly on this measure”. In other words, States that have less bumpy or rigid geographical feature are less likely to follow the idea of gerrymandering. According to the article, “three of the 10 most gerrymandered districts are in North Carolina”. Other states that support gerrymandering are: Louisiana, Mary Land, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Alabama. Indiana and Nevada have the least gerrymandering.  “Gerrymandering is easier to get away with in more densely- populated areas”.