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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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. In Texas, where the state legislature is responsible for drawing U.S. congressional districts, President Trump has pressured Republican lawmakers to lead an out-of-cycle effort to redraw Texas House districts to give the Republican Party more seats in the 2026 election. The proposed Texas map would redraw five districts currently held by Democrats to flip to Republicans.

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This led to more than 50 Texas Democratic lawmakers “breaking quorum,” fleeing the state to block the GOP’s redrawing of House maps; Texas Republicans issuing civil-arrest warrants to make them come back; and lawmakers in several Democratic-led states to threaten to redraw their own maps to create a counterbalance to Texas’ move.

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We'll say it again because it can’t be said enough: This is not the way to run a country. This snake oil, smoke and mirrors, sideshow approach to governing is absurd.