How Gerrymandering Undermines Fair Representation

Gerrymandering—the manipulation of voting maps for partisan gain—has been part of American politics since its founding, but today, the problem is reaching a breaking point.

In this episode, host Simone Leeper shares the story of Vicki and Malcolm Reed, a Utah couple who Campaign Legal Center are representing in a landmark lawsuit defending voters’ rights, alongside Mark Gaber, CLC’s Senior Director of Redistricting. Together, they trace how Utahns fought back after lawmakers attempted to overturn a voter-approved ballot measure that created a citizen-led independent  redistricting commission—and how the Utah Supreme Court ultimately sided with voters.

As Malcolm and Vicki’s story unfolds, we also highlight how the current wave of mid-decade redistricting arms race that started in Texas and is now spilling into other  states threatens to weaken voters’ voices nationwide.  We explore how voters, courts and Congress can act to restore fairness to America’s elections and ensure that voters — not politicians — decide the outcome.

Timestamps:

(00:01) — Who are Vicki and Malcolm Reed, and why did they take on Utah’s legislature?

(02:10) — What is gerrymandering, and how does it work?

(05:11) — How did the framers envision fair representation?

(10:10) — What is redistricting, and why does it matter for voters?

(11:25) — What was Utah’s Proposition 4, and how did it aim to end gerrymandering?

(14:42) — What’s the difference between racial and partisan gerrymandering?

(15:12) — How do “packing” and “cracking” weaken voters’ power?

(16:02) — How has technology supercharged modern gerrymandering?

(17:12) — How did Utah lawmakers gut the independent redistricting commission?

(20:44) — Why did Campaign Legal Center sue the Utah legislature?

(23:22) — What happened when CLC argued the case before the Utah Supreme Court?

(25:15) — What did the unanimous court decision mean for Utah voters?

(28:50) — What is happening right now in Texas and other states across the country?

(32:55) — What federal laws could end gerrymandering nationwide?

(36:13) — Why should the fight for fair maps in Utah give us hope for democracy?

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Mark Gaber manages Campaign Legal Center’s redistricting litigation and policy program, which seeks to achieve fair maps for racial and language minority groups, and to curb the influence of partisanship in redistricting.

Mark has led CLC’s redistricting program to major successes since the 2020 Census. He argued for petitioners in the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Clarke v. Wisconsin Election Commission, which resulted in the invalidation of Wisconsin’s state legislative maps and the transformation of the state’s legislative maps from being among the most politically skewed to among the most politically fair in the country. 

He is lead counsel in League of Women Voters of Utah v. Utah State Legislature, in which CLC has successfully challenged the Utah legislature’s repeal of a voter-adopted initiative reforming the state’s redistricting process and its enactment of an extremely gerrymandered congressional map. In that case, Mark has (to date) argued twice in the Utah Supreme Court, resulting in two unanimous decisions in favor of CLC’s clients.

Mark has also led CLC’s redistricting team to victories enforcing the Voting Rights Act (VRA). These include two cases on behalf of North Dakota’s Native American voters, where he has argued in the Eighth Circuit against a challenge aiming to neutralize the VRA by precluding citizens from filing suit and where CLC’s clients have secured two legislative districts providing Native American voters an equal opportunity to elect their preferred candidates. Mark also led CLC’s successful challenge to Washington’s legislative map, which was found to discriminate against Latino voters in the Yakima region, and CLC’s ongoing challenge to the racially discriminatory Galveston County, Texas, map.

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