The man who rigged America's election maps

The story of the man who gerrymandered America.

When Republican mapmaker Thomas Hofeller died in 2018, we learned exactly how far Republicans were willing to go to gerrymander political districts — and rig elections to give themselves majorities in statehouses and Congress.

[Vox]

Correction at 1:40: Tom Hoffeler didn't make the black-and-white map on the top row. The map was presented by the plaintiffs in a legal challenge to North Carolina's 2017 maps.

[davidmadison]

The hero in this story is his daughter who put democracy before family and turned over his notes.

[TheRishabhkumar]

Leaving the ruling party to decide who should vote and how democracy should work?
Who thought that was a good idea in the first place?

[yojimbo]

"Redistricting is like an election in reverse." Wow. He actually said those words on camera.

[donr.wetter]

The real issue is not that republicans are doing it. It’s that it’s totally legal

[MaJuV]

Hofeller's legacy: His own daughter hates him so much, she publicizes every crooked thing he did an publicly shamed him.
Good job, dad.

[zeldablizzard]

"It used to be that voters picked the politicians, not politicians can pick the voters"

Remember when we thought it was unrealistic for the story's villain to evil monologue?

[kudlitegaming]

Why on earth are people in power are allowed to redraw these political maps???

[isaacm]

Gerrymandering is really getting out of hand.

I mean, where do we draw the line?

[prakashrawat]

Politically speaking, Gerrymandering is genius.
But it is the worst thing to ever happen to the Constitution of a Government

[seankelly]

As Stalin himself said "Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything "

[Reneza]

I commend his estranged daughter bringing this to light, we don’t have to be like our parents.

[daanoverveld]

This is essentially why we can't take America serious as a democracy. Good luck with voting today!

[BrendanWhelan]

The biggest issue here is that majority of Americans have no clue this goes on nor would even understand it, nor care

[alexander]

In the UK constituencies (districts) are drawn exclusively by the independent electoral commission. I can't imagine trusting either party with this responsibility, much less simply telling them 'do it again' when not once but twice have their efforts been found to have been guilty of electoral corruption.

[krankysfirebrand]

This is outrageous. How can anyone call this democracy?

Edit: for anyone in the comments saying that it’s not a democracy it is in fact by definition a democracy, and a symbol for democracy in the world.

The US is considered a flawed democracy according to the economists democracy index. I believe the term is better for describing the US.

Full Oxford definition:
‘Democracy: a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.’

[obamabinladen]

I have an idea:
The guy with most votes wins.

[BSKX]

"america is a democracy"
hoffeler: hold my maps!

[davidvenegas]

There is a Soviet joke about the party dissolving the electorate and choosing a new one. This guy took it as advice.

[lordrindfleisch]

America really needs a multi party system, where the power afforded the power afforded to each party is decided on a popular vote