Editing Gerrymandering (section)

==Tactics==

[[File:Elkanah Tisdale, The Gerry-Mander Map, 1813 Cornell CUL PJM 1034 01.jpg|thumbnail|The image from above appearing in a news article by Elkanah Tisdale in 1813]]
Gerrymandering's primary goals are to maximize the effect of supporters' votes and minimize the effect of opponents' votes. A partisan gerrymander's main purpose is to influence not only the districting statute, but also the entire corpus of legislative decisions enacted in its path.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Schuck|first=Peter H.|date=1987|title=The Thickest Thicket: Partisan Gerrymandering and Judicial Regulation of Politics|journal=Columbia Law Review|volume=87|issue=7|pages=1325–1384|doi=10.2307/1122527|jstor=1122527}}</ref> These can be accomplished in a number of ways:<ref name="ProP201111022">{{cite web|url=https://www.propublica.org/article/redistricting-a-devils-dictionary|title=Redistricting, a Devil's Dictionary|last1=Pierce|first1=Olga|last2=Larson|first2=Jeff|date=2 November 2011|publisher=[[ProPublica]]|access-date=25 December 2017|last3=Beckett|first3=Lois}}</ref>

* "Cracking" involves spreading voters of a particular type among many districts in order to deny them a sufficiently large [[voting bloc]] in any particular district.<ref name="ProP201111022" /> Political parties in charge of redrawing district lines may create more "cracked" districts as a means of retaining, and possibly even expanding, their legislative power. By "cracking" districts, a political party can maintain, or gain, legislative control by ensuring that the opposing party's voters are not the majority in specific districts.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/packing-cracking-supreme-court-takes-partisan-gerrymandering-090050994.html?_tsrc=jtc_news_index|title=Packing and cracking: The Supreme Court takes up partisan gerrymandering|access-date=29 March 2018|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.policymap.com/2017/08/a-deeper-look-at-gerrymandering/|title=A Deeper Look at Gerrymandering {{!}} PolicyMap|date=1 August 2017|work=PolicyMap|access-date=12 April 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=11 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180411040846/https://www.policymap.com/2017/08/a-deeper-look-at-gerrymandering/}}</ref> For example, the voters in an urban area can be split among several districts in each of which the majority of voters are suburban, on the presumption that the two groups would vote differently, and the suburban voters would be far more likely to get their way in the elections.
* "Packing" is the practice of concentrating a large number of similar voters into a single district, thereby limiting their influence in other districts. This approach can sometimes be used to ensure representation for a community, such as by creating a [[majority-minority district]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Best |first1=Robin E. |last2=Donahue |first2=Shawn J. |last3=Krasno |first3=Jonathan |last4=Magleby |first4=Daniel B. |last5=McDonald |first5=Michael D. |date=March 2018 |title=Considering the Prospects for Establishing a Packing Gerrymandering Standard |url=https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/elj.2016.0392 |journal=Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.1089/elj.2016.0392 |issn=1533-1296}}</ref> However, it can also be used to diminish a group's overall electoral impact. When the party in control of redistricting holds a statewide minority, packing may be used strategically to concede a few districts while maintaining greater control over the remaining ones.<ref name="ProP2011110222">{{cite web |last1=Pierce |first1=Olga |last2=Larson |first2=Jeff |last3=Beckett |first3=Lois |date=2 November 2011 |title=Redistricting, a Devil's Dictionary |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/redistricting-a-devils-dictionary |access-date=25 December 2017 |publisher=[[ProPublica]]}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite news |date=1 August 2017 |title=A Deeper Look at Gerrymandering {{!}} PolicyMap |url=https://www.policymap.com/2017/08/a-deeper-look-at-gerrymandering/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180411040846/https://www.policymap.com/2017/08/a-deeper-look-at-gerrymandering/ |archive-date=11 April 2018 |access-date=12 April 2018 |work=PolicyMap |language=en-US}}</ref>
* "Hijacking" is a redistricting tactic that merges two districts, forcing two incumbents to compete for the same seat, ensuring that one of them loses.<ref name="ProP201111022" />
* "Kidnapping" moves an incumbent's home address into another district.<ref name="ProP201111022" /> Re-election can become more difficult when the incumbent no longer resides in the district or faces re-election in a new district with a new voter base. This is often employed against politicians who represent multiple urban areas; larger cities are removed from the district to make it more rural.

These tactics are typically combined in some form, creating a few "forfeit" seats for packed voters of one type to secure more seats and greater representation for voters of another type. This results in candidates of one party (the one responsible for the gerrymandering) winning by small majorities in most of the districts, and another party winning by a large majority in only a few.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://culturalistpress.com/what-is-gerrymandering-and-why-does-it-matter/|title=What is Gerrymandering and why does it matter?|access-date=27 February 2022|language=en-US}}</ref> Any party that endeavors to make a district more favorable to voting for it based on the physical boundary is gerrymandering.