4.5 Reapportionment and Gerrymandering

REAPPORTIONMENT

AND

GERRYMANDERING

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY.

Lesson Overview

Students Will Be Able To:

• Role Play reapportioning and gerrymandering.

• Identify how drawing districts unfairly my affect
election results.

• Use district maps to draw conclusions about
congressional districts.

Vocabulary:

• Apportion

• Cracking

• Gerrymander

• Packing

• Redistrict

Essential Question- How do population sizes and congressional district maps affect representation in the House of Representatives?

Does anything
seem sketchy
about all this?

Census and Reapportionment

seats in the HOR are Apportioned- distributes to states according to their population

Remember that the total number of seats a state gets is based on
population size

• This is determined from the Census, taken every 10 years

• The total US population is divided by 435 Seats

• This determines the districts and there is one representative per district

The idea is that every 10 years the seats should be apportioned in a more equitable manner (Populations do change over time)

the number of seats in the House has remained mostly unchanged
since 1912

• Result? The average population per district was about 210,000 after the
1910 census, and it was over 761,000 after the 2020 census.

Population trends in both the
US and PA

Census.gov | U.S. Census Bureau HomepageLock

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Let's look at what

the data means

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Redistricting

After a Census states will Redistrict- draw new borders of districts

This is where the state legislatures can use the maps to either help or
hurt political power

•Example- States would place certain populations (usually minorities) with higher numbers in smaller districts while placing white populations in large districts so they each received one representative

•This goes against "One Person, One Vote" - the idea that each person’s
vote has equal power.

US Supreme Court in the Baker v. Carr Case

• Ruled that districts' populations should be approximately equal

•first time that the Supreme Court heard a redistricting case

Multiple Choice

Prior to Baker v. Carr, how could congressional districts violate the principle of “one person, one vote”?

• The power of each person's vote was weaker in districts with larger populations

• States with very small populations sometimes did not have any representation

• Some districts had more than 1 representative in the House of Representatives

• The number of congressional seats per state did not change to match changing populations

Prior to Baker v. Carr, how could congressional districts
violate the principle of “one person, one vote”?

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Gerrymandering

With all this data there is a chance that it can be used
unfairly

Gerrymandering- the drawing of district borders to give one
political party an unfair advantage

•This has become a major issue in Pennsylvania Elections
recently

Two Main Ways of Doing This:

• Packing- putting all the opposing party's voters in a small number
of districts

• Cracking- splitting eh opposing party's votes among multiple
districts, so they are outvoted

The idea is to give one party (either Democrat or
Republican) the advantage

An 1812 political cartoon depicting the

gerrymandered district as a “monster”

Gerrymandering

Examine how districts are drawn on the maps
Sort the district maps according to the appropriate
description.

accurately reflects the
overall voting trends of
the state

skews in favor of the
Circle Party

skews in favor of the
Triangle Party

Hint: 10 circles, 15 triangles, each distract must have 5

Examine how districts are drawn on the maps
Sort the district maps according to the appropriate
description.

accurately reflects the
overall voting trends of
the state

skews in favor of the
Circle Party

skews in favor of the
Triangle Party

Hint: 10 circles, 15 triangles, each distract must have 5

How to Gerrymander

PAC K I N G

C R AC K I N G

P E N N S Y LVA N I A
A N D
G E R RY M A N D E R I N G

Lawsuit and a New Map

January 2018 – PA Supreme Court ruled that PA's 2011 Congressional district map violated the PA Constitution and could not be used for the May 2018 primaries

oIt offered the state legislature an opportunity to submit a new map as long it would be approved by the Governor

A new map was drawn and released by the courts after the deadline passed

oIt was designed to not benefit one political party

oThe new map split less than half as many counties as the previous map (13 vs. 28)

After the 2020 census, the Pennsylvania state legislature redrew district borders using updated census data.
oThe map is similar to the 2018 remedial map

oThis map show Pennsylvania’s congressional maps
before and after reapportionment and redistricting.

Post-2020 Census

This is the 2011
Pennsylvania district
map.

Identify at least TWO districts that looks like it was gerrymandered

How does the practice of gerrymandering weaken consent of the governed and representative government?

Essential Question- How do population sizes and congressional district
maps affect representation in the House of Representatives.

Each state’s number of seats in the House of Representatives changes based on new census data.

States sometimes draw new borders of districts in a process called redistricting.

States sometimes draw new borders of districts in a process called redistricting.

Upcoming

Thursday

Federalism

Friday

Federal and State Powers & Quiz Review

Monday

QUIZ

Tuesday

Live Classroom- Types of Federal Powers