Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
(male narrator) Now once a state has been allocated representatives,
the state then has to decide how to divide up the population
of the state among those representatives.
So now rather than taking, like, each county of the state
and allocating it a number of representatives--
now we're talking
about U.S. congressional representatives here--
uh...usually they create legislative districts.
So this is a geographic area,
um...that is represented by a representative.
And the goal is to have the, um...you know,
each district contain,
uh...about the same number of people.
So if you have, uh...a million people in a state,
and you have ten representatives,
then each representative should be representing
about 100,000 people.
So in a large city, uh...the representative
might represent only a portion of the city or just the city.
Whereas in a more rural area,
the representative may represent a much larger area.
Now to define...to create those, uh...dividing lines,
uh...the...that is a process called redistricting,
and that happens every time there's a census--
that they need to redraw the districts
in order to maintain equal-sized districts.
Uh...and when this process happens,
uh...it...it can sometimes lead
to what's called gerrymandering--
uh...and this is when districts are based, uh...are drawn
based on political affiliations, um...of the constituents
to the advantage of those trying to draw the boundaries.
Uh...so for example, consider that we had an area,
uh...a state here...
or small area with three districts.
Um...we got a college here,
which tends to vote primarily democratic,
a rural area that tends to vote more republican,
uh...and the rest of the people are fairly split.
Uh...and so right now,
this middle district has been voting
about 50/50 democratic and republican.
So now suppose that we were redistricting.
Then, uh...if it was
a democratically lead redistricting committee,
they might decide, well, let's redraw these districts here.
I'm gonna redraw this district like this,
and I'm gonna redraw this district like this.
Basically what they're saying is,
we've given up on this rural area,
so we're just gonna make it even more republican.
But by adjusting the boundaries,
they've now made this region a little bit less
of, uh...you know, having a little less
of the republican, um...boundary and now even more, uh...
they'd be a little bit more likely to win this county.
Now this can happen even in, um...
even in bipartisan districting committees,
uh...because, uh...you know
people who are elected like to stay elected.
And so if there was a contentious region...
let's say...let's say this rural area district over here was,
um...you know, maybe we have these two districts,
and both of these were a little bit, uh...
you know, middle of the roadish, um...they-they might collude.
And the-the...I mean, even a bipartisan committee
might decide to redraw the districts like this,
thereby essentially ensuring
that the democrats will win one of the districts,
the republicans will win another one of the districts,
and only one of the three districts is at all contentious.
Now this actually happens.
Let me show you a couple examples.
Uh...the first is
the 38th district out of, uh...California.
Now this district was created
by a bipartisan committee of incumbent legislators.
Um...so it is very likely that this district was drawn,
so that whoever was already, uh...in office
will be able to stay in office, uh...by sort of reaffirming
their-their-their, uh...their win.
Uh...so here's another one.
This is the 4th congressional district
in Illinois, um...in 2004.
Now you'll notice that there's two areas here
that are only connected by, like, the freeway here.
Now it turns out that these two areas
contain the two predominantly Hispanic areas of Chicago--
uh...Puerto Rican to the north,
and Mexican primarily in the southern region.
Uh...and so this district was drawn, uh...
to encompass all the, uh...Hispanic voters,
uh...in-in-in the area.