Why Do States Decide To Redraw Their Congressional Districts

Every ten years, the congressional districts in each state are redrawn based on the updated U.S. census in a process known as redistricting (Miller et al. 2013 XIII). After each census, states lose or gain congressional delegates based on the change in population within that particular state. Redistricting, which is most likely the result of the Great Compromise of 1787, puts the re-apportioning of congressional districts in the hands of state legislatures (Miller et al. 2013 x). In most states, the political party in control of the state legislature has complete control over the redrawing of districts, with the exception of a few states like California and Arizona, who use independent commissions. Regardless of how the state chooses to redraw their congressional districts, they usually follow a few unwritten and written rules.
As stated in the United States Constitution, the largest amount of variance between each district’s population can be ten-percent (Miller et al. 2013 XIII). In addition to equal populations in each district, nearly every state requires the districts to be contiguous, with some even mandating that the districts be drawn in a compact manner (Miller et al. 2013 XIV-XV). The issue over what is considered compact has long been debated with concerns over racial and political inequality being called into question by constituents. The issue many people have is not with the idea of redistricting, but how it is used by political parties to maintain or a gain an advantage in Congress, a process known as gerrymandering (Stern 2017 par. 1). The main purpose of gerrymandering is to maintain a delegate advantage, without having a majority advantage within the