Guest Blogger: Ashley Sadauskis

The unit about Congress was introduced today. We were shown a map of the congressional districts in Minnesota and various other states across the United States. The topic of gerrymandering was introduced. Based on the definition by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, gerrymandering is “to divide (a territorial unit) into election districts to give one political party an electoral majority in a large number of districts while concentrating the voting strength of the opposition in as few districts as possible”. It began with Elbridge Gerry who was the governor of Massachusetts from 1810 to 1812. The state legislature in charge of making these districts, which can help to benefit their party. This brings up the debate of whether this is ethical or not. I believe that this is unethical and should not be allowed. It allows one political party to have a largely unfair advantage against the other party. One of the main values in the United States is equality for all, but this clearly goes against that belief. Both of the parties should have an equal advantage over one another. The election should be fair and not set up for one party to win. Also, the congressional districts can be drawn in outrageous manners. I think that it is unbelievable that a party would make it so obvious that they are trying to overrule the other party. One example is the congressional district map of Chicago that was shown during class. The line was so thin on one side of the districts that it was almost split into two different ones. That is a case that has been brought to the extreme and should not be allowed. I think that gerrymandering should be illegal. If it became illegal, there should be a system that would watch for signs of it and there would be punishment for the people who were involved.Overall, I can understand how state legislatures would want to gerrymander but I believe that they are taking advantage of their authority when they do this.