Let’s refresh our memories:

Gerrymandering is the drawing of legislative district boundaries to benefit a

party, group or incumbent.• Ways to Gerrymander:

– Can “pack” a district with a large number of party voters (dilutes party’s strength in surrounding districts)

– A district can be broken (“cracked”) into several districts (weakens party strength in several districts)

Packing Example

Cracking Example

Packin’, Crackin’, Kidnapping, Highjacking

Why might a politician want to gerrymander?

• To protect incumbents/discourage challengers• Enhance party strength/minimize strength of

the opposition party• Increase minority representation/decrease

minority representation• Punish enemies/reward friends

The Supreme Court has made rules about Congressional redistricting…

• Districts must be equally populated• Districts must be compact• District lines must be connected• District lines must not be drawn only based on race• Redistricting must not dilute minority voting power• Communities of interest must be protected.

Why would the Supreme Court enact these rules?

To Review…

• What is “packing” and its impact?

• What is “cracking” and its impact?

• How does Gerrymandering relate to the wasted vote effect?

Bell work: Day 1, Week of January 14

Discuss the following with your neighbor…

• How is redistricting related to gerrymandering?

• Why would a politician or party want to gerrymander?

• What are the limitations about redistricting?

Redistricting in Arizona is done by the Independent Redistricting Commission.

• Created in 2000 by voters approving Prop 106

• Commission includes:– 2 Democrats– 2 Republicans– 1 Independent

• Must start from scratch rather than redraw

• Competitive and fair

Redistricting isn’t always easy as it looks.

Redistricting is not a uniform process across the U.S.A.

• 34 states- State legislature (often governor approved)

• 6 states- Independent or bipartisan commission

• 3 states- independent bodies, but legislature approved

• 7 states- only have 1 representative

The Redistricting Game

There are 5 missions. Please alternate which political party you are for each mission.

Before you start each mission, make sure you have read the background info and summarized it in your packet.

Complete the other prompts as you work through the missions

A Review of the Redistricting Game

• Mission 1- What are the 3 fundamental concepts of redistricting?

• Mission 2-What is a “partisan gerrymander”?• Mission 3- How is a bipartisan gerrymander different

from the partisan gerrymander? Explain. – What new and different problems does it create? Explain.

• Mission 4- What is the Voting Rights Act? What are its impacts on redistricting?

• Mission 5- What reform efforts have been suggested? Explain.