Cracking & Packing
Describe Cracking
What is weakening the voting power from a particular group across several districts?
Describe incumbent protection
What is a form of gerrymandering in which districts boundaries are inclined to protecting the sitting legislators and make sure that their re-elected?
Describe racial gerrymandering
What is the manipulation of electoral district boundaries to decrease or increase racial or ethnic minority groups voting power?
Describe hijacking
What is redrawing electoral districts boundaries that will place incumbent politicians from the same political party into the SAME district to compete against each other?
Describe kidnapping
What is redrawing electoral districts boundaries to move incumbent politicians into a DIFFERENT district making re-election more difficult?
Describe Packing
What is concentrates the opposing party’s voters into smaller districts?
What strategies are used to protect incumbents
What is cracking and packing?
Is racial gerrymandering legal
What is no, racial gerrymandering is illegal under the U.S. Constitution and federal law?
The purpose of hijacking
What is to weaken political oppositions?
Main goal
What is separate incumbent for their political base, to reduce electoral chances and to strengthen?
The states that used examples of cracking
What is North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, and Utah?
Is incumbent protection a form of partisan gerrymandering
What is yes, in which districts lines are drawn specifically only to benefit sitting office holders?
Racial gerrymandering purpose
What is to weaken the political party of minority voters?
The tactic that is usually compared with “hijacking”
What is “kidnapping”?
Is kidnapping legal when it comes to gerrymandering
What is the federal courts have no authority to forbid “kidnapping” as a tactic of partisan gerrymandering?
The states that used examples of packing
What is North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Texas?
What is partisan gerrymandering
What is the manipulation of electoral districts boundaries that will give one political party an unfair advantage?
Primary employs what two tactics
What is cracking and packing?
Political advantage
What is reduces direct competition within a party?
Real world impacts
What is Florida and Texas?
The result of cracking and packing
What is the winning of more seats for the party in control of redistricting then what their statewide proportion of the vote would suggest?
Is incumbent protection legal
What is yes, incumbent protection is legal but some actions to protect incumbents, like redistricting can be illegal if racially discriminating or if found to be illegal?
Key legal precedents
What is Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960), Thornburg v. Gingles (1986), Shaw v. Reno (1993) and Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP (2024)?
An historical example of “hijacking”
What is The Hijacking of Maryland’s 6th Congressional District?
Impact on democracy and representation
What is moving a politicians base to weaken their re-election chances?