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Most people have heard the word "gerrymandering" once or twice,

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probably during a presidential election.

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What exactly is gerrymandering?

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Essentially, it's the process of giving one political party an advantage over another political party

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by redrawing district lines.

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It's like Democrats trying to gain an advantage over Republicans,

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or Republicans trying to gain an advantage over Democrats.

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You see, each party wants to gain as many districts as possible

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so they can do things like control the state budget,

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or set themselves up to win even more districts in the future.

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So to understand how this process began, and how it continues today,

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we must go back to 1812 in Massachusetts. [br]

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Elbridge Gerry, the governor of Massachusetts, supported and signed a bill to allow redistricting.

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That is, redrawing the boundaries that separate districts.

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The catch? The new lines would favor Gerry's own political party,

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the Democratic-Republican party, which no longer exists.

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You see, Gerry wanted his party to win as many state Senate seats as possible.

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The more members of your party who vote, the more likely you are to win an election.

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The new lines were drawn to include loads of areas that would help Governor Gerry in the future.

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They were so strange looking that someone said the new districts looked like a salamander.

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The Boston Gazette added Gerry's name to the word salamander,

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and voilà! Gerrymandering,

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the process of dividing up and redrawing districts to give your political party an advantage.

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So how exactly does someone go about protecting their own political party,

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and actually gerrymandering a district?

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There are two successful practices.

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Packing a district,

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and cracking a district.

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Packing is the process of drawing district lines and packing in your opponents like cattle,

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into as few districts as possible.

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If more districts equals more votes, the fewer the districts there are,

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the fewer votes the opposition party will get.

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Packing, then, decreases the opponent's voter strength and influence.

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Cracking is the opposite:

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taking one district and cracking it into several pieces.

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This is usually done in districts where your opponent has many supporters.

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Cracking spreads these supporters out among many districts,

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denying your opponent a lot of votes.

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When you have a large number of people who would generally vote for one type of party,

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those folks are known as a voting bloc.

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Cracking is a way to break that all up.

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So when would a party choose to pack their opponent's districts rather than crack them?

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Well, that really depends on what the party needs.

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To dilute your opponent's voters, you could pack them into one district

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and leave the surrounding districts filled with voters of your own party.

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Or, if you and your party are in power when it's time to redraw district lines,

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you could redraw districts and crack up a powerful district

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and spread your opponent's voters out across several neighboring districts.

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So, Governor Gerry in 1812 wanted to gain an advantage for his party,

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and redrew district lines in his state in such a crazy way we have a whole new word

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and way of thinking about how political parties can gain advantages over their opponents.

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Politicians think of creative ways to draw districts every few years.

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So the next time an election comes around,

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and politicians ask people to vote,

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be sure to look up the shape of your district and the districts that surround it.

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How wide does your district stretch across your state?

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Are all of the districts in your state relatively the same shape?

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How many other districts does your district touch?

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But always be sure to ask yourself,

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does my district look like a salamander?