“gerrymandering.” That means redrawing the geographic outlines of a state’s congressional districts so as to favor one party, by assuring that party a proportion of elected representatives higher than the whole state’s proportion of voters choosing that party. This is not a new practice in American politics. In fact, it derives its name from Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, whose administration already in 1812 redrew the state’s districts for the sole purpose of increasing the number of elected representatives belonging to Gerry’s party. The resulting districts had geographically
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