1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:06,920 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:11,720 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Boba bam here. A representative democracy can 3 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:15,000 Speaker 1: be a beautiful thing, but the process of drawing the 4 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:19,120 Speaker 1: lines for congressional and state legislative districts can get ugly. 5 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:24,080 Speaker 1: The Constitution is vague on how voting districts should be drawn, 6 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:27,000 Speaker 1: saying only that they should be updated every ten years 7 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:31,000 Speaker 1: and be roughly equal in population. Over the centuries. Since 8 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:34,760 Speaker 1: the constitution's writing, American politicians have seized on the once 9 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:39,120 Speaker 1: a decade redistricting process to redraw voting maps to their advantage. 10 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 1: While partisan redistricting is an accepted, if bemoaned practice, the 11 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:47,800 Speaker 1: courts have found it unacceptable to redraw voting districts for 12 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:51,520 Speaker 1: the express purpose of suppressing the voting power of black 13 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:57,320 Speaker 1: voters and other minority groups. Gerrymandering is defined as the 14 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:01,680 Speaker 1: manipulation of voting districts for hyperpartist in or racist reasons, 15 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:06,880 Speaker 1: but the line between legit redistricting and unethical jerrymandering is 16 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:10,520 Speaker 1: blurry at best. It's ultimately up to judges to decide 17 00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:15,840 Speaker 1: whether a redistricting plan is kosher or not. Every ten years, 18 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:19,399 Speaker 1: the United States conducts a census. The constitutional purpose of 19 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:23,399 Speaker 1: the census is apportionment, that is, the process of determining 20 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:25,720 Speaker 1: how many seats each state should have in the House 21 00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:30,240 Speaker 1: of Representatives. While the Constitution automatically a lots to senators 22 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:33,720 Speaker 1: for every state, the apportionment of representatives in the four 23 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: hundred and thirty five seat House is based on population, 24 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:41,200 Speaker 1: with populous states like California getting fifty two representatives as 25 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:45,039 Speaker 1: of the census and sparsely populated states like Wyoming and 26 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:50,080 Speaker 1: South Dakota only getting one seat. Each. Members of the 27 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:52,480 Speaker 1: House are voted into office by the voters in their 28 00:01:52,520 --> 00:01:56,400 Speaker 1: congressional district back home, and according to the Constitution, those 29 00:01:56,440 --> 00:01:59,840 Speaker 1: districts should be approximately the same size, meaning that each 30 00:01:59,880 --> 00:02:03,040 Speaker 1: of the four thirty five House members represent roughly the 31 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:07,000 Speaker 1: same number of people. The average congressional district now holds 32 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:12,520 Speaker 1: a little over seven d s people. But who draws 33 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:16,480 Speaker 1: the district maps. A handful of states appoint independent commissions 34 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:19,400 Speaker 1: who draw their district lines, but those are the outliers 35 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:23,360 Speaker 1: right now. State legislatures in thirty nine states draw their 36 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,560 Speaker 1: own congressional districts, though that includes the six states that 37 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: only have one congressional district. If the state legislature is 38 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:34,239 Speaker 1: firmly in the hands of one political party or the other, 39 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:36,600 Speaker 1: as it is in more than half of all states, 40 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,840 Speaker 1: then that party exercises a lot of control over the 41 00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 1: redistricting process. By tweaking the size and shape of voting districts, 42 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:46,840 Speaker 1: they can boost the voting power of their party and 43 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:51,400 Speaker 1: increase the odds of winning congressional seats. The district drawings 44 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:55,360 Speaker 1: and power struggles in each individual states legislature works similarly, 45 00:02:55,680 --> 00:03:00,880 Speaker 1: but we're concentrating on the national government today. Okay, So 46 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:06,200 Speaker 1: when does partisan redistricting cross the line and become illegal gerrymandering. 47 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:11,400 Speaker 1: When state legislators sit down to redraw their voting district maps, 48 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:15,920 Speaker 1: even in solidly Republican or democratic states, they're expected to 49 00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:19,240 Speaker 1: play by some basic rules. Districts have to be of 50 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:22,440 Speaker 1: roughly equal population, though a deviation of a few percentage 51 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:26,359 Speaker 1: points is okay. Districts have to be contiguous, meaning they 52 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: have to be contained by one boundary. And districts should 53 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 1: be compact, not long and snakelike. Of those three characteristics, 54 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:39,240 Speaker 1: the compactness or non compactness of a district is usually 55 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:43,880 Speaker 1: the one that triggers accusations of gerrymandering. For the article 56 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:46,080 Speaker 1: this episode is based on, Has to Work, spoke with 57 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,160 Speaker 1: Doug Spencer, a law professor and election law scholar at 58 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:52,920 Speaker 1: the University of Colorado, Boulder. He explained, if you see 59 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:55,640 Speaker 1: a bizarrely shaped district that raises your intent a that 60 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:58,240 Speaker 1: it may not have been drawn neutral ly, but in 61 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:01,600 Speaker 1: a way that favors some group, political group, a racial group, 62 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:05,440 Speaker 1: or something else. After all, it was the freakest shape 63 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: of a Massachusetts congressional district that helped coin the term 64 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:12,520 Speaker 1: Jerrymander in eighteen twelve. The long and snaking district was 65 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:16,520 Speaker 1: approved by Governor Elbridge Jerry and delivered a powerful electoral 66 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:20,880 Speaker 1: advantage to his party, the Democratic Republicans. A newspaper cartoonist 67 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:23,840 Speaker 1: noted the alamander like shape of the district and labeled 68 00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:29,679 Speaker 1: it the Jerrymander after its partisan creator. According to Spencer, 69 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:33,200 Speaker 1: the courts have recognized that partisanship and the redistricting process 70 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:37,000 Speaker 1: is an accepted outcome of state elections. If voters put 71 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 1: control of the state legislature in the hands of one party, 72 00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:43,680 Speaker 1: then there's an expectation that party officials will make redistricting 73 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:48,120 Speaker 1: decisions that benefit their party. Spencer said, the question becomes 74 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:51,600 Speaker 1: how much partisanship is too much. That's the line that's 75 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:56,440 Speaker 1: hard to distinguish. Some state legislatures are blatantly honest, but 76 00:04:56,560 --> 00:04:59,960 Speaker 1: what they're trying to accomplish. In North Carolina, for example, 77 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:04,040 Speaker 1: the Republican chair of the state's redistricting committee said in sixteen, 78 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 1: I propose we draw the maps to give an advantage 79 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:10,359 Speaker 1: to ten Republicans and three Democrats, because I do not 80 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 1: believe it's possible to draw a map with eleven Republicans 81 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:17,880 Speaker 1: and two Democrats. And in Maryland, the Democratic governor testified 82 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:20,240 Speaker 1: that a new district was drawn to quote create a 83 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:22,320 Speaker 1: district where the people would be more likely to elect 84 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:25,800 Speaker 1: a Democrat than Republican. Yes, this was clearly my intent. 85 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:30,960 Speaker 1: But do such statements go too far? For its part, 86 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,080 Speaker 1: the Supreme Court is keeping out of the controversy. In 87 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:37,280 Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, the justices ruled five to four that the 88 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: nation's highest court would not get involved in challenges to 89 00:05:40,279 --> 00:05:44,720 Speaker 1: state plans on strictly political grounds. They left those challenges 90 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:50,680 Speaker 1: to state lawmakers and state courts. Racially motivated jerrymandering is 91 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:54,279 Speaker 1: unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection under 92 00:05:54,279 --> 00:05:57,400 Speaker 1: the law. But before the nineteen sixty four Voting Rights 93 00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:00,640 Speaker 1: Act was passed, state legislatures a special in the Jim 94 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,920 Speaker 1: Crow era South used a pair of gerrymandering tactics to 95 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 1: strip black voters of equal electoral power. They're called packing 96 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:12,599 Speaker 1: and cracking. If black voters were concentrated in a certain 97 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:16,000 Speaker 1: geographic area of a state, then the legislators would pack 98 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:19,479 Speaker 1: them into one or two districts. Even if that created 99 00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:22,599 Speaker 1: strong black voting blocks in those districts, their vote would 100 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:27,039 Speaker 1: be outweighed by all of the majority white districts. If 101 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:30,560 Speaker 1: black voters were more geographically dispersed, then the districts were 102 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:33,479 Speaker 1: drawn in order to crack or dilute the black vote 103 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:37,040 Speaker 1: by assigning small numbers of black voters to several different districts, 104 00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:40,160 Speaker 1: and that way their voices were still guaranteed to be 105 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:44,839 Speaker 1: drowned out by the white majority. This was supposed to 106 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:47,719 Speaker 1: change with the Voting Rights Act, which included a provision 107 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:50,440 Speaker 1: that six Southern states had to receive federal approval for 108 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:55,919 Speaker 1: their districting plans. Those six states, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, 109 00:06:55,960 --> 00:06:59,360 Speaker 1: South Carolina, and Virginia were flagged for this extra scrutiny 110 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:03,000 Speaker 1: because of a story of race based jerrymandering. In the 111 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:07,480 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, three more states were added, Alaska, Arizona, and Texas, 112 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:12,840 Speaker 1: but in a landmark case, the Supreme Court bailed out 113 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:15,800 Speaker 1: those nine states from having to seek congressional pre approval 114 00:07:15,880 --> 00:07:18,800 Speaker 1: for their plans, and stoking fears of a new wave 115 00:07:18,880 --> 00:07:23,680 Speaker 1: of racially motivated jerrymandering, mainly in Republican controlled Southern legislatures. 116 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:28,720 Speaker 1: The reality is that racial jerrymandering is still unlawful and 117 00:07:28,760 --> 00:07:32,280 Speaker 1: can be challenged in both state and federal courts. A 118 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:35,720 Speaker 1: lawsuit intended to block a state's redistricting plan on racial 119 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:38,480 Speaker 1: grounds must be filed by a voter living in the district, 120 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:42,640 Speaker 1: says Spencer, not an outside political organization. It's then up 121 00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:45,480 Speaker 1: to a judge or judges to determine if there's enough evidence, 122 00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:49,240 Speaker 1: like testimony or emails or texts between lawmakers to conclude 123 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:52,320 Speaker 1: that the district lines were in fact drawn to disenfranchise 124 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 1: minority voters. And these challenges do happen. Two high profile 125 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:01,920 Speaker 1: Supreme Court cases within the past gade effectively blocked districting 126 00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:05,720 Speaker 1: plans in North Carolina and Virginia on grounds of racial jerrymandering. 127 00:08:07,040 --> 00:08:09,760 Speaker 1: A part of what makes the line between redistricting and 128 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:13,520 Speaker 1: jerrymandering so blurry is that the electorate has become increasingly 129 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:20,160 Speaker 1: polarized along racial lines. In presidential election, for example, of 130 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:24,440 Speaker 1: black voters shows the Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Meanwhile, white 131 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:29,280 Speaker 1: voters continued to skew Republican particularly non college educated white 132 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:34,400 Speaker 1: voters of whom voted for Donald Trump. What that means 133 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:37,640 Speaker 1: for Republican held legislatures, especially in the South, is that 134 00:08:37,679 --> 00:08:40,679 Speaker 1: any attempt to crack or pack districts to prevent the 135 00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:44,440 Speaker 1: election of Democrats risks targeting black voters and running a 136 00:08:44,440 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: foul of the law. Today's episode is based on the 137 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:55,440 Speaker 1: article what's the difference between redistricting and jerrymandering? On House 138 00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:58,360 Speaker 1: to works dot com, written by Dave Rouse. Brain Stuff 139 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:00,360 Speaker 1: is production of iHeart Radio and partner ship with how 140 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:02,560 Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. 141 00:09:03,040 --> 00:09:05,439 Speaker 1: Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the heart 142 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:08,120 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 143 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:08,880 Speaker 1: favorite shows.