It’s no secret that Americans are frustrated and disillusioned with Congress. A recent Gallup poll found that a whopping 83 percent of Americans disapprove of the federal legislature’s performance. In another poll, Gallup found that just 19 percent of Americans believe most members of Congress deserve to be re-elected, nearly a historic low.
Clearly, the overwhelming majority of the American people feel Congress is not adequately representing their interests.
One of the most significant obstacles toward a more responsive, representative Congress is the practice of gerrymandering.
The U.S. Constitution mandates that congressional districts must be redrawn every 10 years. The power to redraw these districts is granted to the state legislatures.
In theory, redistricting is designed to create districts that accurately represent the constituents of a state. Unfortunately, the majority party in the state legislature often uses redistricting as an opportunity to draw districts that benefit its partisan allies.
This process, the act of redrawing districts to favor a specific political party, is known as gerrymandering.
Florida is an excellent example of how gerrymandering obstructs and perverts the democratic process. In Florida, 39 percent of registered voters are Democrats, 35 percent Republicans.
Despite the nearly equal distribution of voters between the two major parties, Republicans hold 17 of the state’s 27 House seats to the Democrats’ 10.
Gerrymandering has a major effect on congressional representation. In 2012, Congressional Democrats received about a million more votes nationwide than did Republicans.
Despite the Democrats’ advantage in the overall vote count, Republicans currently hold a 234-199 majority in the House. Republican control of the House is largely a result of gerrymandering by Republican-dominated state legislatures.
Unfortunately, an opportunity to curtail the destructive gerrymandering process in Florida was squandered this month.
In July, Terry P. Lewis, a judge in Leon County, ruled Florida’s new congressional districts unconstitutional, calling them a “mockery” of the redistricting process.
Lewis suddenly and sharply reversed course on Friday, approving new congressional maps that contained only mild, superficial changes from the ones that he so harshly criticized.
Lewis’ approval of these districts ensures that Floridians will continue to be inaccurately represented on Capitol Hill.
Gerrymandering isn’t solely a Republican problem; Democrats have engaged in the same behaviors previously and likely will do so again given the opportunity.
However, the degree and scope of Republican gerrymandering over the past several years has helped to produce a Congress that looks nothing like the people it is meant to represent.
Ending gerrymandering won’t bring an end to the ineffectiveness of Congress. But appointing nonpartisan commissions in each state to redraw districts would be a major step toward a more representative and responsive federal government.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 8/26/2014 under the headline Gerrymandering: a roadblock for representation "Gerrymandering: a roadblock for representation"]
