Gerrymandering: The Silent Tool of Voter Suppression
By: Rylin Helmick
Every ten years, Texas legislative officials meet to discuss the issue of redistricting. While the number of counties and representatives does not change, the boundaries to which these districts are defined change shape to either add or disregard certain areas. Currently, there are no Texas constitutional or statutory provisions that address congressional redistricting. Instead, the legislature must draw up districts for the Texas seats apportioned to the congressional before the end of the candidates’ filing period for the first general election. This is where the idea of gerrymandering comes into play.
Gerrymandering is a practice that is intended to establish unfair political advantages for certain political parties. Legislative officials can draw boundaries in favor of their political views. The ruling group in a state legislature, which is in charge of defining congressional district lines, will often aim to consolidate the opposition party’s dominance in as few districts as possible, thus giving itself probable majorities in as many districts as possible. Gerrymandering has been a topic of concern for years. One of the top concerns being that gerrymandering is a form of voter suppression. Legislative officials can form these districts around areas that favor their political party. This helps to give a political edge when it comes to voter turnout and elections. Adding more constituents of a certain party to a district helps to overpower the minority party in elections. Gerrymandering establishes a class of intensely conservative elected representatives who oppose consensus and encourage ideological extremes to satisfy their supporters by isolating like-minded people in the same congressional districts. With proven “safe” congressional districts, state and national party assets can be combined for more competitive districts, fostering partisan division in what would otherwise be minor, local races. The trend of “cracking” extends through counties, placing dissenting party voters in the minority. This suppresses ideological diversity and drowns out the voices of these voters. In Texas, the effects of gerrymandering are easily seen by comparing voter registration to voter turnouts for elections. The top five largest districts in Texas by population are Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, and Travis.
These districts are best for showing the effects of gerrymandering because of their large populations. Using data from the Texas Legislative Council and the State of Texas Demographics, I was able to cross-compare the number of voter turnouts in elections versus the total number of registered voters before and after redistricting.
The analysis of these cross-comparison shows that the number of voter turnouts versus voter registration has dropped an average of 11%. In the past years, the implications of gerrymandering and even the bare knowledge of what gerrymandering is have reached, people. More and more now know how gerrymandering affects them at the smallest level, turning people away from voting because they believe their vote does not count. This is shown in my analysis of the data from the Texas Legislative Council and the State of Texas Demographics.
The information from the Texas Legislative Council is an important and accurate piece of information because it comes directly from the Texas State Capitol data program. This means that the information directly expresses the population of Texas accurately, and it is consistently updated to match the information of Texas. Likewise, the information from the State of Texas Demographics gives systematic breakdowns of the maps for the Texas House of Representatives districts. Ultimately, this research is important given that the Texas government is currently in session and redistricting is a key topic of discussion. The idea of gerrymandering has been controversial for years. By bringing to light the erroneous of these acts, Texans may have a better chance to gain proper, fair, and accurate representation.
