Redistricting happens every 10 years and is how the United States divides up communities based on equal population for the purposes of establishing what voting districts we live in, who represents us, and how those representatives will allocate resources for our communities. The districts we draw shape our lives and our communities for the next decade.
150+
SOLVE organizations between 2013-2018
CROWD ACADEMY
The 2021 redistricting cycle kicked off in the summer when 2020 Census results are delivered to the states. For over a year, SOLVE Partners have led Community Redistricting Organizations Working for Democracy (or CROWD) Academies, hosting 31 multi-day which have equipped over 1,000 people (our CROWD Scholars) and 150 organizations across eight Southern states with the skills to educate their communities about the redistricting process. Moreover, we’re providing intensive training and mentorship to 25 CROWD Fellows tasked with monitoring map-making in communities across the state while helping Southerners draw alternative state and local maps yielding the resources and representation they deserve. Together we are mobilizing greater participation in the redistricting process to pressure state and local electeds to create a transparent process, draw fair districts that protect our communities of interest and establish a clear record of community demands so that we can challenge any attempts to rig the process.
Gerrymandering
“Gerrymandering” occurs when state legislatures purposefully draw district boundaries so that they give an advantage to a particular group or party — or put an opposing party or group at a disadvantage.
Racial Gerrymandering
Racial gerrymandering is the intentional segregation of voters based on race. States have traditionally used “cracking” to weaken the political power of communities of color: breaking up communities of color into multiple districts, ensuring that there are not enough voters of color in any one district to elect their candidate of choice. As communities of color grow, states have also used “packing:” concentrating voters of color into just a few districts, thereby weakening their political power elsewhere. With fewer opportunities to elect candidates of their choice, communities of color lack adequate representation in local, state, and federal government.
Partisan Gerrymandering
Partisan gerrymandering is used to discriminate against a political party. This prevents opposition parties from gaining enough voters to represent a viable alternative point of view, and leads to the formation of political monopolies. Even if a district’s shape does not look strange, its population can still be engineered to elect certain politicians.
Prison Gerrymandering
Prison gerrymandering is the distortion to representation that occurs when voting maps are drawn using Census numbers that count incarcerated individuals in their prison cells instead of their home communities. When officials prison gerrymander, any district with a correctional facility will have fewer true residents than a district without. This distortion transfers political power to people who live near prisons and away from people and communities impacted by incarceration.
RESOURCES
2020-21 CROWD Academy Redistricting Handbook
2020 Census Data Fact Sheet
Overview of one of the most promising strategies to enfranchise voters.
2021 Effective Public Testimony for Redistricting Fact Sheet
Overview of one of the most promising strategies to enfranchise voters.
2021 North Carolina Redistricting Fact Sheet
Overview of the redistricting basics, including communities of interest.
2021 Winning Open Redistricting Public Hearings
Overview of one of the most promising strategies to enfranchise voters.