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In 1812 Governor Gerry of Massachusetts changed the voting district lines to deliberately favor his party's voters, which helped him win the election. A political cartoon showed the shape of the new random districts, which people compared to the shape of a salamander (a type of lizard).
This resulted in the creation of the word Gerrymander, which refers to a politician deliberately moving voting district boundaries to favor his party.
TStodden
Gerrymandering is the term used for manipulating polling districts in order to give a candidate (or candidates) an advantage. To visualize the concept, we'll use the following example for a city election...
* There are 5000 eligible voters in your city.
* There are 5 districts in your city, each with 1000 voters
* To win the election, you must win 3 /5 districts
* Your Party receives 40% (2000) & your Rival receives 60% (3000) of the votes
* You (as the incumbent) can decide HOW the voters are distributed among the districts
Here's one way things could go for you to win.
* District 1: 0 votes for you, 1000 votes for your Rival (Rival Wins)
* District 2: 0 votes for you, 1000 votes for your Rival (Rival Wins)
* District 3: 600 votes for you, 400 votes for your Rival (You Win)
* District 4: 700 votes for you, 300 votes for your Rival (You Win)
* District 5: 700 votes for you, 300 votes for your Rival (You Win)
Is it fair? NO! Is it Legal? TOTALLY! Will it happen in 2020 (with the census)? DEFINITELY (to some degree)!
Hope this sheds some light on the subject.
Anonymous
Gerrymandering,
manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favour one party or class.
Achieve (a result) by gerrymandering.
"an attempt to gerrymander the election result"