UCS Offers Recommendations to Reduce Gerrymandering

UCS Offers Recommendations to Reduce Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering - creating voting maps that benefit one political party over another - undermines the will of the people.

Every ten years state and local governments map out voting districts. The constitutionally mandated process of assigning people to districts is supposed to ensure voters have equal opportunity for government representation.

But the process is often co-opted by politicians in power. Rather than creating maps that accurately represent the population, they draw maps that are likely to keep them in power, undercutting the right of voters to choose their representatives.

But gerrymandering can be limited. A new Union of Concerned Scientists' (UCS) fact sheet lays out how engaging the public can lead to fairly drawn maps and strengthen democracy.

Recommendations include disseminating information in multiple languages, maintaining accessible websites and allowing public engagement in every step of the map-drawing process.