Gerrymandering is the highly controversial act where political parties divide voting districts based on their voting demographics. Essentially, they fix elections for their party and eliminate competition. This spans further though; by eliminating competition, representatives no longer represent the people of the states and actually become even more radical for their party (that's the only way to beat members of the same party). Some states have already enacted laws to ban gerrymandering, such as California, but the overwhelming majority of states have no safeguards against gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is probably one of the most destructive underlying forces in our democracy, and can be directly linked to the huge polarization the US currently faces.
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