Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the U.S., posing for a photo. Photo courtesy of davidostewart.com

By Logan Longtin- contributor

The idea of democracy, “government of the people, by the people, for the people” as Abraham Lincoln described, has always been a cornerstone of the United States.

Woodrow Wilson stated in a speech to Congress “…we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts — for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments.”

Wilson was seeking a declaration of war against Germany during World War I. Now, I wouldn’t want to argue with Wilson (even if he was a pretty big white supremacist) but, instead of attempting to spread democracy overseas, it would be more beneficial for our country if a more concerted effort were made to resolve issues within our own electoral system.

A serious problem that affects the way that Americans vote for their representatives on both state and national levels is a practice known as gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering is to “manipulate the boundaries (of an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class,” according to dictionaryreference.com

Every member in the House of Representatives represents a single congressional district within their state, the boundaries of which are determined by the legislators themselves.

On the national level, it is required that each district be contiguous and represent approximately 700,000 people, but it is up to the discretion of the representatives to determine how those people will be divided and represented.

In practice, this allows whichever party is in power the ability to select their voters, strengthen their chance of reelection, and diminish the control of the opposing party. For example, if the Republican Party finds themselves with the support of only a minority of the voters in a state, but they have control of the redistricting process, they can gerrymander their districts accordingly.

The Republicans can spread Democratic voters so thin between districts that Republican voters may still count as a majority in most districts and ,therefore, Republicans will have more seats in the House, even if there are technically more Democratic voters in the state. This is a strategy referred to as “cracking.”

Another tactic could be for the Republican Party to group all of the Democratic voters into several districts that would be “unwinnable” for the Republicans, therefore eliminating any competition all together but still maintaining a rigid majority of seats in the house, in a strategy known as “packing.”

The House of Representatives was intended by the Framers of the Constitution to be responsive to the will of the people and quick to change, which is why representatives only serve       two-year terms.

But gerrymandering has hindered the flexibility of the House and the need for cooperation among representatives. According to fairvote.org, the number of competitive “swing” districts in the United States (districts with a mixed population of voters that require representatives to compromise across party lines to satisfy their electorate), has decreased from 121 districts to 47 districts between 1998 and 2012.

The only competitors that incumbent representatives have to fear are members of their own party who may be more radical than they are. This increasingly partisan set up, where cooperation is discouraged and competition is negligible, has led to things such as the recent government shutdown of 2013 and continued gridlock in the legislative branch.

Several states such as California, Washington, Idaho, Arizona and New Jersey have added amendments to their state constitutions that establish non-partisan committees that are responsible for the redistricting process.

Such an initiative could be proposed in North Dakota through a petition, but since North Dakota is only a single district state, such a law would only affect the state legislature. It would be almost impossible for national reform to occur without serious efforts, because a vast majority of the House of Representatives is gerrymandered.

The most feasible way to begin this critical reform would be to start at the state level. Maybe then more people will get to have a voice in their own government, as Wilson advocated long before our parents were born.