How Gerrymandering Began in the US

[Michie]

Long before it got its name, Gerrymandering was already happening in the United States.

• Massachusetts voting district that the state’s Jeffersonian Republicans had drawn to benefit their own party. Governor (and future vice president) Elbridge Gerry signed off on his party’s redistricting plan in February, unwittingly cementing his place in the United States lexicon of underhanded political tricks.
  
  Federalist newspapers in Massachusetts reprinted the cartoon with its portmanteau of “Gerry” and “salamander,” helping the new word to take off. Although the pronunciation has changed over time—Gerry’s name is pronounced like “Gary,” but Americans now pronounce the word bearing his name like “Jerry”-mander—the meaninghas mostly remained the same: gerrymandering is when politicians redraw voting districts to benefit their political party.
• Gerrymandering Existed Before It Had a Name
  
  The practice of manipulating voting districts to secure political power predates the fearsome Gerry-mander. In 18th-century England, political operatives created “rotten boroughs”with only a few eligible voters, making it easy for politicians to buy the residents’ votes and gain seats in Parliament.
  
  Continued below.
  How Gerrymandering Began in the US
  
  
  
  
  
  The term "gerrymander" stems from this Gilbert Stuart cartoon of a Massachusetts electoral district twisted beyond all reason. Stuart thought the shape of the district resembled a salamander, but his friend who showed him the original map called it a "Gerry-mander" after Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry, who approved rearranging district lines for political advantage.
  
  Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
  

 

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[SummerMadness]

People seem quite surprised to learn that most types of gerrymandering aren't even against the law.

I thought no one was surprised that it was legal, rather they would like to change the practice altogether so that politicians do not have the ability to simply choose their voters.