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{{Short description|Process of drawing electoral district boundaries in the United States}}{{about|the process of determining electoral boundaries in the United States|the process in other countries|Redistribution (election)}}{{Politics of the United States}}Redistricting in the United States is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries.WEB,weblink Boundary Delimitation Glossary, ACE: The Electoral Knowledge Network, 4 December 2022, For the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures, redistricting occurs after each decennial census.NEWS, Goldman, Ari L., 21 November 1986, One man, one vote: Decades of court decisions, The New York Times,weblink The U.S. Constitution in Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 provides for proportional representation in the House of Representatives. The Reapportionment Act of 1929 required that the number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives be kept at a constant 435, and a 1941 act made the reapportionment among the states by population automatic after every decennial census.WEB, Apportionment Legislation 1890{{snd, Present |date= 2008 |publisher=U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration U.S. Census Bureau |url=https://www.census.gov/history/www/reference/apportionment/apportionment_legislation_1890_-_present.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101017161546weblink |archive-date=17 October 2010 |url-status=live }} Reapportionment occurs at the federal level followed by redistricting at the state level. According to {{ussc|name=Colegrove v. Green|328|549|1946|el=no}}, (Article One of the United States Constitution#Section 4: Congressional elections|Article I, Section 4) left to the legislature of each state the authority to establish congressional districts;WEB, Proportional Representation,weblink Office of the Historian, United States House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., September 21, 2018, however, such decisions are subject to judicial review.WEB, Warren, Earl, Reynolds v. Sims, Justia, en,weblink 4 December 2022, In most states redistricting is subject to political maneuvering, but some state legislatures have created independent commissions.WEB, Who draws the lines?, All About Redistricting, en,weblink 4 December 2022, The Uniform Congressional District Act (enacted in 1967) requires that representatives be elected from single-member districts. When a state has a single representative, that district will be state-wide. {{USC|2|2c}} Gerrymandering in the redistricting process has been a problem since the early days of the republic.BOOK, Griffith, Elmer, 1907, The Rise and Development of the Gerrymander, Chicago, Scott Foresman, 45790508,weblink In recent years, critics have argued that redistricting has been used to neutralize minority voting power.WEB, Gerrymandering could limit minority voters' power even though Census shows population gains,weblink 2021-11-26, CNBC, en, Supporters say it enhances electoral competitiveness.WEB, Why should we care?, All About Redistricting, en,weblink 4 December 2022,

Legislative representatives

Federal

{{Further|United States congressional apportionment}}File:2020 census reapportionment.svg|thumb|upright=.95|Allocation of districts following the 2020 census.]](File:USCongressionalRedistrictingPartisanControl2020.svg|upright=.95|thumb|Partisan control of congressional redistricting after the 2020 elections, with the number of U.S. House seats each state will receive.{{legend|#2c82b6|Democratic control}}{{legend|#d63f3f|Republican control}}{{legend|#ecc61c|Split or bipartisan control}}{{legend|#60c53a|Independent redistricting commission}}{{legend|#c0c0c0|No redistricting necessary}})Six states have a single representative in the United States House of Representatives, because of their low populations.WEB, U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census: Apportionment of the U.S. House of Representatives,weblink Census.gov, April 26, 2021, These are Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. These states do not need redistricting for the House and elect members on a state-wide at-large basis. {{USC|2|2a(c)}}In 25 states, the state legislature has primary responsibility for creating a redistricting plan, in many cases subject to approval by the state governor.WEB, Who draws the lines?,weblink All About Redistricting, en, 2021-11-27, To reduce the role that legislative politics might play, thirteen states (Alaska{{efn|Since Alaska only has a single representative, its congressional redistricting laws are not currently in force.}}, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington) determine congressional redistricting by an independent or bipartisan redistricting commission.WEB,weblink 2009 Redistricting Commission Table, National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), June 28, 2008, 2013-09-06, Five states: Maine, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont{{efn|Since Vermont only has a single representative, its congressional redistricting laws are not currently in force.}}, and Virginia give independent bodies authority to propose redistricting plans, but preserve the role of legislatures to approve them. Arkansas has a commission composed of its governor, attorney general, and secretary of state.By law, the forty-four states with more than one representative must redistrict after each decennial census to account for population shifts within the state as well as (when necessary) to add or remove congressional districts.Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1, 18 (1964). {{USC|2|2a(c)}}. Federal law (including the Constitution) does not prevent states from redistricting at any time between censuses, up to and including redistricting prior to each congressional election, provided such redistricting conforms to various federal laws.League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, 548 U.S. 399, 447 (2006). However, "mid-decade" redistricting proposals (such as what occurred in 2003 in Texas) have typically been highly controversial. Because of this, many states prohibit mid-decade redistricting, although this is more prevalent for state legislative redistricting than for congressional redistricting. Some also link it to a specific year or to the decennial census. It is unclear to what extent mid-decade redistricting would be legal in those states.WEB, National Overview,weblink 2023-04-08, All About Redistricting, en, (File:Congressional mid-decade redistricting map.png|thumb|The legality of mid-decade congressional redistricting in the United States)(File:State legislative mid-decade redistricting map.png|thumb|The legality of mid-decade state-legislative redistricting in the United States)Apart from mid-decade redistricting initiated by state legislatures (as happened in Texas), both federal and state courts can also order the redistricting of maps between-censuses (because maps were ruled unconstitutional or against federal law, for example). Examples of this are the redistricting that occurred between the 2016 and 2018 elections in (Redistricting in Pennsylvania#2018: Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidating the 2011 congressional districts|Pennsylvania) or the redistricting that occurred in North Carolina.League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 181 A.3d 1083 (Pa. 2018)

State

State constitutions and laws also mandate which body has responsibility over drawing the state legislature boundaries.WEB,weblink Government Redistricting Web Sites, Purdue University Libraries, 2009-08-25, Blake, Aaron,

Redistricting criteria

The Reapportionment Act of 1929 did not state any size and population requirements for congressional districts, last stated in the Apportionment Act of 1911, since the 1911 Act was still in force. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the 1911 Act was no longer in force even though Congress never repealed it. The previous apportionment acts required districts be contiguous, compact, and equally populated.Apportionment Act of 1842, 5 Stat. 491.Apportionment Act of 1862, 12 Stat. 572.Vieth v. Jubelirer, 541 U.S. 267, 276 (2004).Each state can set its own standards for congressional and legislative districts.WEB,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20090618070653weblink">weblink dead, June 18, 2009, TheHill.com - Redistricting looms over 2010 landscape

The Hill (newspaper) >The Hill, 2009-08-25, In addition to equalizing the population of districts and complying with federal requirements, criteria may include attempting to create compact, contiguous districts, trying to keep political units and communities within a single district, and avoiding the drawing of boundaries for purposes of partisan advantage or incumbent protection.Miller, Jason C.,Community as a Redistricting Principle: Consulting Media Markets in Drawing District Lines (July 6, 2010). Indiana Law Journal Supplement, Vol. 5, 2010. Redistricting may follow other criteria depending on state and local laws:{{citation |title=ArcGIS is Making Redistricting More Efficient and Transparent |newspaper=ArcUser |url=http://www.esri.com/~/media/Files/Pdfs/news/arcuser/0518/arcuser-spring-2018.pdf|date=Spring 2018|pages=26}} compactnessJOURNAL, Katz, Jonathan N., King, Gary, Rosenblatt, Elizabeth, 2020, Theoretical Foundations and Empirical Evaluations of Partisan Fairness in District-Based Democracies,weblink American Political Science Review, en, 114, 1, 164–178, 10.1017/S000305541900056X, 53991300, 0003-0554, contiguity equal population preservation of existing political communities partisan fairnessJOURNAL, Katz, Jonathan N., King, Gary, Rosenblatt, Elizabeth, 2020, Theoretical Foundations and Empirical Evaluations of Partisan Fairness in District-Based Democracies,weblink American Political Science Review, en, 114, 1, 164–178, 10.1017/S000305541900056X, 53991300, 0003-0554, racial fairnessBOOK, The Politics of Congressional Elections, Jacobson, Gary, PEARSON Education, 2013, New Jersey, 9, Gerrymandering Gerrymandering, the practice of drawing district boundaries to achieve political advantage for legislators, involves the manipulation of district boundaries to leave out, or include, specific populations in a particular district to ensure a legislator's reelection or to advantage their party.In states where the legislature (or another body where a partisan majority is possible) is in charge of redistricting, the possibility of gerrymandering (the deliberate manipulation of political boundaries for electoral advantage, usually of incumbents or a specific political party) often makes the process very politically contentious, especially when the majorities of the two houses of the legislature, or the legislature and the governor, are from different parties. Partisan domination of state legislatures and improved technology to design contiguous districts that pack opponents into as few districts as possible have led to district maps which are skewed towards one party. Consequently, many states including Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin have succeeded in reducing or effectively eliminating competition for most House seats in those states.WEB, Rakich, Ryan Best, Aaron Bycoffe and Nathaniel, 2021-08-09, What Redistricting Looks Like In Every State,weblink 2021-11-09, FiveThirtyEight, en, WEB, Wilkes, Mackenzie, 2021-10-26, Americans Don't Trust Their Congressional Maps To Be Drawn Fairly. Can Anything Change That?,weblink 2021-11-09, FiveThirtyEight, en-US, Some states, including New Jersey and New York, protect incumbents of both parties, reducing the number of competitive districts.NEWS, Astor, Maggie, 2021-09-16, Where Redistricting Stands in 14 States, en-US, The New York Times,weblink 2021-11-10, 0362-4331, The state and federal court systems are often involved in resolving disputes over congressional and legislative redistricting when gridlock prevents redistricting in a timely manner. In addition, those disadvantaged by a proposed redistricting plan may challenge it in state and federal courts. Justice Department approval (which is known as pre-clearance) was formerly required under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in certain states that have had a history of racial barriers to voting. The Supreme Court's ruling on the Pennsylvania redistricting effectively allows elected officials to select their constituents by eliminating most of the grounds for constituents to challenge district lines.WEB,weblink Vieth v. Jubelirer, supct.law.cornell.edu, 2009-08-25, U.S. Supreme Court redistricting cases Colegrove v. Green (1946) Baker v. Carr (1962) — federal courts may review redistricting of state legislative districts Gray v. Sanders (1963) — 14th Amendment's equal protection clause requires “one person, one vote” standard Wesberry v. Sanders (1964) — legislative districts for the U.S. House of Representatives must be composed, to the extent practicable, of equal numbers of eligible voters Burns v. Richardson (1966) Reynolds v. Sims (1964) Gaffney v. Cummings (1973) Karcher v. Daggett (1983) Thornburg v. Gingles (1986) Davis v. Bandemer (1986) Growe v. Emison (1993) Voinovich v. Quilter (1993) Shaw v. Reno (1993) Johnson v. DeGrandy (1994) Miller v. Johnson (1995) Bush v. Vera (1996) Hunt v. Cromartie (1999) Vieth v. Jubelirer (2004) League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry (2006) Bartlett v. Strickland (2009) Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (2015) Gill v. Whitford (2018) Benisek v. Lamone (2018 & 2019) Rucho v. Common Cause (2019) Allen v. Milligan (2023) Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP (2023) See also Boundary commissions (United Kingdom) United States congressional apportionment Notes {{notelist}} References {{reflist}} Further reading {{citation |title= Over Half of House Seats Can't Be Gerrymandered |date=October 1, 2020 |url=weblink |author= Louis Jacobson |work= Cookpolitical.com }}. (About U.S. congressional districting) External links All About Redistricting Includes state criteria. redistrictinginamerica.org A comprehensive source for information about redistricting in all fifty states from the Rose Institute of State and Local Government MappingSoftware.com Maptitude for Redistricting News Congressional Apportionment from the Office of the Clerk at the United States House of Representatives, including historical representation by state District sizes and other data from 1900-2000 from the United States Census Government Redistricting Web Sites from GovDocs at Purdue University Libraries, includes list of state websites Public Mapping Project A Citizen's Guide to Redistricting, 2010 Edition, downloadable Reapportionment and Redistricting in the U.S. from the ACE Project Rodriguez, Lori. "Getting point of redistricting." Houston Chronicle. Saturday August 24, 1991. A25. www.FloridaRedistricting.org WEB, Jeffrey B. Lewis, 2013, Digital Boundary Definitions of United States Congressional Districts, 1789-2012,weblink University of California, Los Angeles, etal, WEB, ProPublica, Redistricting: How Powerful Interests Are Drawing You Out of a Vote,weblink The Redistricting Game - Where Do You Draw the Lines A simulation of how redistricting works. It uses the real US laws and practices and incorporates quotes from US political leaders. Equal Population in Redistricting includes definition of equal population criteria from ACE Projects {{Redistricting (US)}}{{USRedistrictinglaw}}