Elbridge Gerry and his Salamander

If I had to pick one of the biggest issues that affects nearly every aspect of our government today, I would have to say it is the gerrymandering war that is heating up and likely heading to the Supreme Court. Although initially started by Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry and the district he signed into law looked like a salamander, it ramped up recently with Texas and California both blatantly doing it to swing the next election. I don't think people really understand how significant their efforts might impact us.

Did you know that before Texas and California's attempts to redraw their election district maps, 90% of the House of Representative races and 80% of the Senate races in the next election were already decided? We know which party will win already! The only selection we are voting for in the primary is to determine which Democrat will win the primary and go onto secure their seat in Congress or vice versa for the Republicans. There are only 47 (41 Representative and 6 Senate) seats that are considered competitive in the entire Congress! Only around 15% of us will cast a meaningful ballot in a race for Congress. 

I find that absolutely terrifying and essentially what Texas and California are doing are trying to reduce the number of competitive seats even further. Another thought that terrifies me is that many states have anti-gerrymandering rules in their constitution but of those that don't, 191 districts are drawn by Republicans and only 75 by Democrats. This means the Democrats are likely to lose any arms race to gerrymander in the short term and right now, with the current occupant and his followers, that leaves me feeling uneasy.

What is the solution?

A good start would be to pass the Freedom to Vote Act which passed the House of Representatives in 2022 but couldn't clear the filibuster rules of the Senate by 2 votes. It would help prevent gerrymandering but to my understanding, wouldn't do much to unwind what has already been done at least until the next 10 year cycle is over for redrawing district maps. 

While we are at it, we should move towards an open primary system which leads to elected officials more appealing to the majority of voters. We would do away with segregated primaries altogether and just allow everyone (who is eligible) to vote for their favorite candidate from a slate of candidates from all parties. If the top person doesn't garner a majority, the top two move on for a revote and it isn't controlled by either party who those two are but by we the people. By doing this, studies have shown that election participation increases dramatically and because the majority of voters (those who don't subscribe completely to either political party as of a 2024 survey), resulting primary winners tend to be more moderate. With closed primaries, the more extreme political candidates tend to win the nomination. 

I don't know if by doing both of those things that we can cure everything that is wrong with our malfunctioning government but I would guess it would cure the lion's share of problems. It is least worth a shot over the total disfunction we have now.