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The term gerrymandering is a portmanteau of a salamander and Elbridge Gerry, [a] [5] Vice President of the United States at the time of his death, who, as governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area that was compared to the shape of a mythological salamander. The term has negative ...
The word gerrymander was reprinted numerous times in Federalist newspapers in Massachusetts, New England, and nationwide during the remainder of 1812. Gerrymandering soon began to be used to describe not only the original Massachusetts example, but also other cases of district-shape manipulation for partisan gain in other states.
Elbridge Gerry (/ ˈ ɡ ɛr i / GHERR-ee; July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from 1813 until his death in 1814. [1]
Gerrymandering is the manipulation of district boundaries to give one political party an unearned advantage over the other. The term came from a salamander-like district signed into law by ...
The word “gerrymandering” dates back to 1812 when the Boston Gazette coined that term to refer to the Massachusetts state district map signed into law by Gov. Elbridge Gerry.
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US congressional districts change every 10 years after the US Census finishes its work (hence the action taking place in 1812). The governor at the time was named Gerry and eventually, the animal in this cartoon (a dragon) was likened to a salamander, giving way to the term Gerrymandering. The term is still in common use in the American ...
A report in The Guardian suggested that widespread gerrymandering led to the creation of many hard-to-challenge or "safe seats", so that when real contests come along, "party activists duke it out among hardcore supporters in primaries", and that this exacerbates sometimes bitter partisanship. [16] Complexity.