Why is the re -division of circles very important, in 3 plans?
The Transfer of the Republic of Texas to re -drawing the map of Congress in the middle of the decade, and efforts to re -divide the retaliatory circles of Democrats have acquired national interest for a very simple reason: how US household areas can form American politics for years.
Gerrymandering generally reduces the number of competitive races, and can close almost an unsuccessful feature of one party or another. Under the new map proposed in Texas, no vote for the presidency in SEAT was decided with individual numbers in 2024, and Republicans will have their way to the majority of the narrow Congress in the mid -term elections. This means that more people can reside in the Congress areas under strong control on one side.
NBC News has analyzed how the issue of maps – and how to do this can be able to form elections for years after that.
The difference between safe seats and competitive areas
Who draws boycott lines can make a difference between the disputed general elections in the state in November and the elections that are hardly more than procedures.
NBC News has analyzed each house race in the country from 2012 to 2020, the last course for dividing the circuits for 10 years, based on how to draw each region. In the states where the state lawyers carried out the maps, the two -number races (elections in which the winners won less than 10 degrees Celsius). Only 10.7 % of the house races fell in that competitive category.
There are many reasons that do not involve gerrymandering. For one reason, voters on both sides have gathered increasingly in recent years, leaving less places throughout the country politically divided.
However, Gerrymandering plays an important role. When committees, federal courts, or federal courts have drawn the past decade, the competitive elections jumped, although safe seats are still highly possible. Competitive elections were particularly prevalent in countries with courts drawn in the court: 18.1 % of races in those states that were margins from two numbers from 2012 to 2020.
A look at the state of Pennsylvania, whose legislative map has been presented and replaced in 2018 by the state’s Supreme Court, is the dramatic change that can come based on those who draw Congress lines. The same state with the same voters living in the same places was suddenly many competitive elections.
From 2012 to 2016, there were only three from 54 years of general elections in Pennsylvania under the initial map, where there were margins consisting of one number.
After the state’s Supreme Court threw the map and imposed a new step, the number of battlefield races rose. There were eight of the 36 races of two -digit house in 2018 and 2020.
Meanwhile, before 2026, the political report of Cook with Amy Walter, where Amy Walter evaluated 40 house areas as lists or slightly tilted towards one party. More than half (23) of these forty competitive provinces are present in the states where commissions or maps were drawn.
How to compare the state party with those who send it to Congress
The authority to divide the districts can split state representation in Congress away from comprehensive partisanship, with extensive differences between voting at the state level in some states and makeup their home delegations.
Illinois, for example, took 44 % of the vote in 2024. Republicans maintain only three seats in the 17th state in Congress, or 18 %. (NBC News considers presidential data instead of home data here because some races are unexpected.
On the other side of the professor’s book, Trump got support by 58 % in South Carolina last year, and 86 % of the state’s home delegation. In North Carolina, 51 % voted for Trump last year, and the Republicans have 71 % of the delegation.
The comparison of home seats and the performance of the presidential election is not perfect. But he explains that how to draw provinces can generate different results from the results that may suggest the results at the state level.
In the middle of the scheme is Virginia. 11 regions of Congress were divided into 6-5 for Democrats, which means that Republicans carry nearly 46 % of the state seats in Congress, and Trump won 46 % of the votes in Virginia last year.
Also, just because state maps prefer one party compared to the results at the state level after one elections that do not mean that the re -division of circles was biased. Pennsylvania is tightly classified by seven Democrats and 10 Republicans in Congress, and three regions controlled by the Republican Party are classified as throwing races or Ribon in 2026, according to Cook’s political report.
Each state draws its own path
Since every state is responsible for dealing with the re -division of its circuits, the process is different depending on the whereabouts, which gives tremendous power to different institutions by state.
In 27 states, legislative bodies approved maps. In seven, independent commissions were approved by them, seven maps approved by the court, and two of them have political commissions, and the state maps were approved by the Reserve Disclosure Committee, according to data from the law school in Liola. (The six countries that elect one person only to the House of Representatives do not draw new maps of Congress.)
Liwala Faculty of LawEverything about re -dividing the circles“The website defines that political commissions can work for elected officials as members. The website defines backup commissions as backup measures if legislative bodies are not able to agree on new lines.
Some of the re -dividing the independent circles are not the same strength as those in other states. New York has an independent committee, but the legislative body exceeded its map and ordered in 2024.