"Why isn't gerrymandering illegal?"

[SheilaT]

4. The states can draw districts any way they like,

so long as they adhere reasonably close to the one person one vote rule.

The problem is that those drawing the districts know perfectly well where the registered voters for each party reside. Which makes me wonder. I believe there are states out there that don't require voters indicate party affiliation when they register, so I wonder how good they are at gerrymandering. On the other hand, they will know precinct by precinct how voters voted, so it's still a doable thing.

About thirty-five years ago I was taking a college level geography class. One of our assignments was to redraw Congressional Districts in some particular state. I think it was either Oregon or Washington, and I was in school in Virginia, so the assumption was probably that none of us knew too much about the state chosen. I cannot recall if we were given party affiliations, but I do recall how difficult it was to draw the lines to adhere to the one person one vote rule.

There's probably no good reason why someone in some other country who is blessedly ignorant of the partisan politics of this country, couldn't be given the job of writing a computer program that draws the districts. But it will never happen. Some states have turned to more or less bi-partisan or neutral commissions to draw the districts.