Local Fair Districts advocates hope to get cracking to send Gerrymandering tactics packing.

Gerrymandering is the process of designing election districts that favor the party designing them.

Tactics used in Gerrymandering include packing — concentrating the votes of one party into a few districts that will win landslides — and cracking — spreading out the remaining voters of that party to areas where they will be defeated, but by small margins.

The local branch of Fair Districts PA is pushing for legislative action — soon.

Making changes to the process for Congressional districts takes action by the legislature and governor.

The state’s Congressional district map was ruled unconstitutional by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2018.

The court then created a remedial map when the legislature and governor could not agree on a new map. A new Congressional map will be created based on the results of the 2020 Census.

Changes to how districts are determined for members of the General Assembly would require constitutional amendment – two years of approval by both houses, and passage by voter referendum.

Bills have been introduced in both the state House and Senate regarding redistricting. If the legislature approves those bills soon – Fair Districts is calling for action by June 30 – the two-year process will be underway. If not, it cannot start for another year.

“The bills we support, HB 22 and 23 and SB 1022 and 1023, represent years of discussion, research, advocacy and civic engagement,” Phyllis Wright of FairDistrictsPA of Warren said. “Despite having more cosponsors than any other bills in both this session and the last, bills to create an independent redistricting commission have never been given a vote.”

Those bills would create an independent redistricting commission, Wright said. “Over 100,000 Pennsylvanians have signed petitions supporting an independent redistricting commission, and state-wide polls have consistently shown that 2/3 of Pennsylvanians support an independent citizens commission for redistricting.”

Gerrymandering has been around for a long time. The term is named for Gov. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, who had been the nation’s fifth vice-president serving under President James Madison. In 1812, Gerry signed a redistricting bill that created a long, narrow district that wrapped around much of his state to the benefit of his Democratic-Republican Party.

The district was drawn as a snake-like monster. When it was called a salamander, someone replaced that with Gerrymander.

“Gerrymandering is a redistricting procedure that favors only one political party,” Susan Stout of FairDistrictsPA of Warren said. “Gerrymandering isn’t new, but it has become much more prevalent due to computer technology that makes it very easy to redraw electoral districts in this manner.”

“Widespread Gerrymandering has pushed our politicians to more extreme positions and makes it impossible for Congress to do its job,” Stout said. “Similar impacts are seen in state government. For example, in Pennsylvania during Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s first year in office, he and the Republican legislature engaged in a nearly year-long budget battle. School Districts and Public Health agencies had to borrow money to operate since they had no incoming state funding.”

“Many bills passed through the House State Government Committee and the House itself in the past few weeks were considered just days, even minutes, after introduction,” Wright said. “We believe that the people of Pennsylvania deserve action in committee, reporting these bills to the floor of the House and the Senate, and deserve a roll call vote that will allow us to see which legislators support fair redistricting of Pennsylvania’s legislative districts.”

The members of FairDistricts are calling for citizens who would like to see action on redistricting contact their state representatives.