From today’s The Hill:
The highly anticipated Supreme Court ruling on Louisiana v. Callais will affect the Voting Rights Act, which led to the creation of majority-minority districts in many states. Without such districts, gerrymandering of congressional maps could be taken to an unprecedented level, effectively making House elections meaningless — perhaps even unnecessary.
Congressional map-drawing no longer needs to be done manually. Computational redistricting provides algorithms to create maps with scalpel-like precision. Computers can provide highly gerrymandered districts for either party, based on who runs the mapping process. What is less discussed is that computational redistricting can also create maps that serve the interests of voters. They can also create competitive districts that force candidates to be responsive to their constituents rather than their party. In other words, computational redistricting is a tool that can be used either for good or for evil.
The weapons of gerrymandering are known as “packing” and “cracking.” “Packing” assigns as many voters as possible with the same political lean into the same district. Although such voters overwhelmingly win their district, only a 50 percent win is needed, effectively wasting votes that could have influenced the outcome in other districts. For examples of this, look to Illinois’s 15th and 16th districts, which were both won by Republicans uncontested in 2024.
“Cracking” achieves a similar outcome, albeit in a complementary manner. By distributing voters with a common political lean across multiple districts, it dilutes these voters’ influence so much that they cannot gain a critical mass of support for their favored candidates. A good example of this is Tennessee’s 5th congressional district, which includes parts of Democrat-leaning Nashville. Ever since the 2021 gerrymander, the district has been represented by a Republican. The new Missouri map similarly cracked metropolitan Kansas City so that there is no longer a Democratic district there.
Read the complete story here.