Weird maps win elections - Gerrymandering explained

Why does the USA draw district maps with absolutely bonkers shapes? And how do squiggly districts help the wrong politicians win elections? And have we been pronouncing "Gerrymandering" wrong for 200 years?

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Written and presented by

Director/DOP

Edited by
JAY FOREMAN

Runner
ABBY TIMMS

VFX

Animation

Gerrymandered districts artwork

Many thanks (and recommended YouTube channel if you're into US politics)

[painbow]

This crisp advert was ruined by some nonsense about maps.

[Qenwolf]

Ah yes, to avoid the controversial subject of British politics, they went for the much more peaceful subject of American politics

[TheUberjammer]

Today I had back pain. I found myself humming "Back pain, back pain, back back back pain.... pain."

[sentiel]

This is the ONLY channel that I don't skip the ads with the sponsorblock extension. The fact you actually make the ads enjoyable is funny. Never has education been so informative as well as humourous

[Mike-kcew]

As an American, I can say that the worst part of drawing voting district lines, is that we allow the party in charge to draw them. I don't care if the party doing it is Democratic or Republican, allowing political parties to draw their own voting district lines that they can directly benefit from is akin to the old statement of "allowing a fox to guard the hen house." That's really something that needs to be moved to a non-partisan committee.

[JoeBleasdaleReal]

Pronouncing it “Mah-rye-lawned” is payback for all those times Americans have called it “Westchesterfordshire sauce”

[MrTwarner]

Michigan is actually one of the first states to fix Gerrymandering. Through a state-wide referendum, Michigan residents took the power of drawing districts away from the legislature and gave it to a board with an even number of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. In the next election, the state went from being Republican controlled despite Democrats winning the popular vote to Democrats holding a slim majority, which reflected the popular vote. It's possible to address Gerrymandering, but not if politicians get to draw the borders.

[frobosnop]

Hey, the Dutch national news broadcaster 'NOS' just posted an explaimer about the US voting system. And they used a fragment of your episode! As a Dutchman and your fan, this was a hugh hype

[ubadahoop]

Naming districts is actually an incredibly simple and subtle solution to help reduce Gerrymandering.

[YourLocalDoctor]

I'm impressed that they managed to find that many similarities between gerrymandered districts and _those_ oddly specific depictions, let alone make them into a rhyming song

[orion]

As a Californian, the reference to Schwarzenegger was an effort- which passed while he was governor- to create a citizen's commission for redistricting. While this new system still isn't perfect, it takes away the ability for the politicians to draw the maps and puts it in the hands of a citizen group. In California we feel this has been a good step in the right direction.

[SashArovot]

I live in Utah. Recently, a ballot measure passed with an overwhelming majority requiring the state to create a review board for fair, nonpartisan redistricting. The state shot it down and simply refused to do it, and now there's a new ballot measure pretending to increase the strength of ballot measures but actually just codifying that the state is allowed to ignore them so they don't get sued next time.

[robinier]

That Maryland district was pretty notorious. It was so ludicrous that a judge famously called it "a broken-winged pterydactyl lying prostrate across the state."

[juffinhally]

1:27 No, no new song by Tchaikovsky; your paper is from 1812, and my man's been born in 1840, and the 1812 overture's been published in 1880

[Ikkarson]

In France we recently solved the conundrum: after the legislative vote, the president (executive) still does whatever strikes his fancy.

[stoutyyyy]

There’s also the issue of unilateral disarmament. Neither party wants to be the first to tackle gerrymandering because banning it *only in the states they control* would give the other party a huge advantage.

[alexlowe]

I love your style, and this is a really important video to teach people.

Unrelated to the content, I wish more people knew about the incredible job I did in my US government class, where I almost broke my teacher's brain by perfectly gerrymangering my realistic digital districts with nothing by straight sided rectangles. Her first reaction when I called her over to look at my work was "That's not right, you're supposed to follow the lesson plan and gerrymander your districts". I'll never forget her long pause when I gladly said "I did!", and she stared at the straight lines perfectly packing and cracking to manipulate the results, and says "Wait, you did." I pointed out how cool my nice neat straight lines were, and watched the smile melt from her face with a simple "Huh." I think her faith in the government was a bit shaken at that moment. It's hilarious how badly some of those districts are drawn. I strongly believe if our politicians cared more about making better maps, they could gerrymander our districts without using all those nonsensical insane squiggles.

[josepholiveira]

Time to be That Guy, with a small correction: 'Undecided voters' are pretty rare in the US, and not very impactful in elections. People tend to either know exactly who they want to vote for, or are unplugged and uninterested in voting at all. The real 'swing' votes are people who *have* a preference, but can't be bothered to vote; turnout of a given party's loyalists is much more impactful than convincing people who Want to Vote But Don't Know Who For. Most electioneering is less about persuading the undecided, and more about getting party loyalists to get to a polling station on a random Tuesday that's not a holiday for some reason.

[FooBarBash]

Mark's voice coming out of Jay's mouth and vice versa is just the brand of weird I expect and love from this channel.

[cubisttubist]

Lyrics for the Gerrymandering song:

A showerhead,
A car with wings,
One of those old-fashioned hand drill things.

A dinosaur,
A watering can,
The shape on the flag of the Isle of Man.

A metal detector,
A bale of hay,
A knight sitting on his horse the wrong way.

A rabbit in a hat,
And a Bop It
And a spoon
Super Soaker, seahorse, Cameroon!

A plume of steam from a mug of tea.
Donald Duck being kicked by Goofy.
A carpet stain from a naughty pup.
A mouse leaning over with a big thumbs up.

Snake, dog, bat, dog, snake, duck snake.
We'll be right back after the break!