Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is the drawing of legislative or congressional district lines in a way that predetermines electoral outcomes beyond what routine political map-drawing produces. All districting carries some incumbent or partisan effect; the publication tracks lines drawn so aggressively — packing one party's voters into a few districts, cracking them across many — that the resulting seat distribution diverges substantially from the underlying vote share, often confirmed by adopted maps that fail standard compactness or competitiveness tests. State courts striking down maps as unlawful partisan gerrymanders is one strong signal; expert reports submitted in litigation are another. The standard applies symmetrically to Democratic and Republican map-drawers.