gerrymandering

Many people are aware of the fact that congressmen are re-elected at a 94% rate but many are not aware of why. The high rate is the result of something called gerrymandering. This process has been around for many years and is a way of drawing the district lines to favor one party over the other. As time passed the lines got sharper to where today we have only about 40 districts that are competitive. This has had many unfortunate side effects and one of the most damaging has been the tendency for it to make partisanship more acute. This happens because the only way a congressman, in a so called safe district, can lose his seat is by a primary challenge. Primary elections have low turn-out and bring out the die-hards and this scares the politicians and causes them to move further from the center. It gives undue power to those on the extreme right and left. This will continue until the redistricting process is reformed. In the high tech world we live in the answer is to have a computer draw the lines instead of elected officials but they are not likely to vote for something that will limit their power.