Every ten years, the U.S. Census Bureau conducts a census and uses the data to assign each state the number of seats it will have in the U.S. House of Representatives for the next ten years. Individual states then draw legislative boundaries for congressional districts and state legislative districts. This process is conducted by the state legislature in some states, while a few states use independent commissions.

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Redistricting is intended to give states the ability to appropriately respond to population shifts and to ensure that no geographic area is underrepresented. 

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Unfortunately, that’s not the way it has played out. Opportunist politicians have kidnapped the system and made the despicable habit of drawing districts for competitive advantage standard operating procedure. Sophisticated voter profiling and a significant advancement in mapping technology allow legislators to essentially pick and choose the voters that will ensure their party’s victory. 

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These fabricated districts are drawn specifically to capture the crazed party faithful, and the crazed party faithful demand likeminded candidates. Therefore, the possibility of a moderate candidate is largely eliminated and most of this country is silenced.

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The prevailing system in most states is railroaded by partisan collusion and protects the interest of political parties to the detriment of the American citizen. Redistricting (to revise legislative districts) is certainly legal but, thanks to the 1995 Supreme Court decision Miller v. Johnson, gerrymandering (to divide an area into election districts to give one political party an electoral majority while concentrating the voting strength of the opposition in as few districts as possible) is 1000% not.

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Gerrymandering is a blatant abuse of power and is a perfect example of partisan politics at its very worst. Its tentacles poison far more than just an election or two; gerrymandering is the breeding ground for the deep ideological split that now plagues this country.

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In 2025, The Wall Street Journal reports that “in 40 states, a single party controls the House, Senate and governor’s office – a so-called trifecta – or else has enough power to block vetoes from a governor of the other party. That leaves less than 20 percent of Americans living in a state where the minority party has a meaningful voice in governance. The result has been a deepening of differences in red and blue America.”

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…and this is just going to get worse if we don’t do something, fast. Even though it has been only six years since the release of the 2020 census data, states have undertaken mid-decade redistricting at rates not seen since the 1800s. Since the summer of 2025, states across the country have redrawn congressional maps, although court challenges and referendums have prevented some of those maps from taking effect.

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The scale is remarkable. According to a September 2026 analysis by Protect Democracy, 34.8 million Americans – roughly one in ten – now live in a different congressional district than they did during the 2024 election cycle. About one-fifth of Americans live in districts where more than a quarter of the voters are new to the district.

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And the process is still unfolding. Missouri is currently set to use its previous congressional districts in the November election after litigation over its newly drawn map, while other states have pursued or considered additional redistricting that could affect elections beyond 2026.

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That said, some heroes are holding their ground. Despite enormous pressure – which included the swatting of legislators’ homes, death threats, and social media temper tantrums and threats of being “primaried” from Donald Trump – Republican legislators in Indiana voted their conscience in 2025 and defeated a dishonorable gerrymandering ploy. Thank you, Indiana!! Hooray for Hoosiers!!