From the Census to Gerrymandering

“The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.” -U.S. Constitution, Article I, Sec. II.

2020 is a census year. The federal census happens every ten years and is an incredibly important government function, something so basic and necessary the Founders included it in the Constitution.

The census is administered by the U.S. Census Bureau. The goal of the census is to gather information about the population of the country. Ideally, everyone residing in the country, regardless of citizenship status, should be counted. The data collected is invaluable because it is used to allocate government resources appropriately and draw electoral districts.

Drawing electoral districts is essential. While the census data comes from the federal government, the actual drawing is left up to the state and local governments because local governments understand their communities better. In order for everyone to have equal representation, districts are drawn using the total population of certain areas. The point of districts is to group people with similar interests together so that an elected representative can represent their constituents more effectively. Ideally, this means that districts are drawn to avoid dividing up communities.

Of course, it doesn't always work like that. In fact, it rarely does. The census data is often used to give certain communities and demographics more representation in government than others. From the beginning, the census was tainted with the racist Three-Fifths Compromise, leading to black slaves being counted only as three-fifths of a person in order to give southern slave-owning whites more power. 

Using the census data to draw districts that purposefully give certain groups greater representation has also been around since the beginning. This practice is so common it has a name: gerrymandering. The term was coined in the early 1800s, after Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a bill that created a partisan district that had such an absurd shape that it was compared to a salamander. 

Gerrymandering can be done in two ways: splitting and packing. Splitting is done by dividing up certain communities so that members of those communities do not have a majority in any of the districts they reside in. For example, a black community that would make up 60% of a district on its own could be broken in half so that blacks make up only 30% of two different districts, thereby decreasing the representation of black voters. Packing is done by grouping certain communities into fewer districts. So, instead of having five districts with minority populations of 40-50% each, there might only be two with 80-90% each. Gerrymandering often leads to some truly absurd looking districts.

Like the census, gerrymandering has also often been used to give whites more voting power. When the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, new regulations were put in place that were meant to prevent states from gerrymandering districts along racial lines. For a time, this worked. Minority representation in Washington increased and new electoral maps gave communities of color more voting power. 

However, the Supreme Court recently gutted the VRA in a 5-4 vote by finding Section 5 of the VRA unconstitutional. Section 5 required states with a history of racial gerrymandering to clear their electoral districts with the federal government and show that any new districts were not racially gerrymandered. The conservative justices on the Supreme Court argued that racial gerrymandering was no longer an issue, so there was no more need for Section 5. 

Even though racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional, partisan gerrymandering is not. Both parties are guilty of drawing district lines that increase their own representation; new technology and better data have made gerrymandering much more effective. In 2010, the Republican Party instituted a program called REDMAP with the goal of drawing electoral districts that would give Republican candidates an advantage over Democrats. The program worked. In 2012, Democrats received 1.4 million more votes for the House of Representatives, yet Republicans won control of the House by a 234 to 201 margin.

Partisan gerrymandering was challenged in court (again) shortly after. In the case of Gill v. Whitford, the district maps from Wisconsin and Maryland were challenged as unconstitutional because they had the intent and effect of giving one party more representation than the other. The Supreme Court dismissed the case, claiming that such cases were nonjusticiable because there is no clear standard to determine if a partisan gerrymander has occurred (despite the court being offered several to choose from.) 

Now, the 2020 census is here. After 2016, there had been talk about adding a question regarding citizenship to the census. Republicans and the Trump administration wanted to add this question because it would keep people who are in the US illegally (and likely some who are here legally) from answering, thus reducing the apparent population of certain areas and demographics and reducing their voting power. Fortunately, it was shot down by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision.

After the 2020 census, every state and local government is going to draw new electoral districts. It is important to give the census accurate data and pay attention to where the lines are drawn.