A family member was under the misguided impression that gerrymandering was not much an issue these days. I collected some images to show just how alive gerrymandering is today.
Explained graphically:
The tactics are called cracking and packing.
North Carolina congressional districts in real life:
race:
Outcome: 10 republican (77%), 3 (33%) democratic congresspeople. Vote count: 53%R, 47%D. Another way of calculating this difference is with a concept called the efficiency gap.
It's also easy to see in the results how the packed 1st, 4th, and 12th districts are consistently won by democrats by much higher margins (~35%) than the republican districts (~17%).
Close up of Charlotte:
Look at that and try to say racial gerrymandering doesn't happen in the US these days.
Observe what happens in district shapes around 1995.
This happens all over the USA:
NC 4th district:
Texas 35th district:
Exactly!
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