I bet you've been to a city or town that has different sections.
Maybe one for business, one where there are factories or farms, and one for houses.
These are called districts.
States are also divided into districts for political purposes.
Each district elects officials to their state and national bodies,
like the U.S. Congress or the Georgia General Assembly,
which is housed right here the Capitol building in Atlanta.
These legislative districts are made up of different
sections of cities, towns, and counties.
How a district is shaped and who is included in it
can make a large difference when it comes to who gets elected.
Georgia sends 16 officials to the US Congress: 14 Representatives and two senators.
Some elected officials may represent districts made of more than one county or town.
This tends to be in areas that have smaller populations.
Oppositely, sometimes counties or even cities are broken into many districts
because the population is so large.
Atlanta has so many people, it's been broken into many different legislative districts within the city.
So let's look a little closer at how districts are drawn.
According to Article I, Section II of the US Constitution,
every ten years the government conducts a census to
determine who lives where in the United States.
As populations grow and people move into or around the state,
legislative districts are redrawn to reflect these changes.
The redrawing of these districts is called redistricting.
The federal government only has a few rules for redistricting.
One is that populations in all districts must be nearly equal,
about 710,000 people.
And that's why all of Atlanta can't be one big district because there are so many people living there
Districts must also be contiguous.
And that means that they have to be one whole piece and not a bunch of separate sections that don't touch.
Now this is where redistricting gets controversial.
You remember our discussion about majority rule in our episode on midterm elections?
Well after a census is taken, the party that's in power gets to redraw all the legislative districts.
And the impulse is pretty strong to draw those districts to benefit the majority party.
It's kind of like making the rules to a game you're about to play.
You're much more likely to establish rules
that favor you or your team so your chances of winning are increased.
This practice in government is known as gerrymandering
A gerrymander is a district that looks really weird like this.
It comes from a district in Massachusetts that looked like a salamander back in 1812.
Back then, Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a bill into law that redrew districts in his
state to benefit the Democratic Party.
When a leading newspaper of the time saw the new district,
they thought it resembled a salamander and dubbed it the gerrymander.
The idea behind this practice is to look at the voting trends
in a district and then group similar voters together to guarantee a win for that party.
For instance, there tends to be more democratic voters and cities and
more Republican voters in rural areas.
If a district can be drawn with more Democratic voters than Republicans,
that district is more likely to elect a Democrat,
and vice versa if Republicans are in control.
A common belief is that this practice allows politicians to choose their voters
instead of voters choosing their politicians.
Now let's look a little closer at Georgia's districts.
The US House of Representatives is a great example.
Georgia has 14 representatives in the US House, Congress' lower chamber.
And you see District 2?
It covers a lot of southwest and middle Georgia.
Voters from cities like Macon, Columbus, and Albany are combined with voters from more rural areas
like Americus and Plains.
But then take a look at District 6 in metro Atlanta.
Whereas District 2 covers almost 30 counties,
District 6 only covers parts of three.
And while the district lines might look uneven,
remember it's about population, not size.
And here's an interesting point.
Check out Fulton County, the most populous county in the state.
It's divided into four different districts,
the 5th, 6th, 11th, and the 13th.
So you're probably wondering,
What guides the drawing of districts or redistricting besides population?
Well officials try to group voters who have similar interests and daily lives.
For instance, look at District 9 in Northeast Georgia.
If you remember your regional geography,
you know that most of Northeast Georgia falls into the Blue Ridge and Upper Piedmont regions.
Voters in those counties and towns have similar day-to-day lives and interests.
There's a greater focus on the natural environment because of the mountains and the rivers.
In your district, you and your friends
may attend the same schools, shop at the same stores, and play the same teams.
And your parents may work similar jobs, eat at the same restaurants, and use the same banks.
These similarities tend to make people who live in communities have
shared interests and values in terms of voting.
But people in different regions might have different interests because of how their community is organized.
Consider what makes your community unique.
Is it known for its agriculture?
Businesses?
Maybe its natural beauty?
All of these aspects can play a part in voting trends.
So that explains congressional districts.
But the state's General Assembly has 180 State Representatives,
so the districts have to be much smaller.
Remember how a lot of people from Southwest Georgia were in the same congressional district?
Now look at that same area.
There are more than 15 representatives in the lower chamber of the General Assembly for that region.
And Bibb County alone is divided into five districts.
Now here's a close up of metro Atlanta.
See how some of the districts are so small they only represent parts of neighborhoods?
Why is that?
The main reason is that the General Assembly only makes laws for the state of Georgia,
whereas the US Congress makes laws for the whole country.
And Georgia is only one of 50 states.
Georgia has 16 of the US Congress' total 535 seats.
But in Georgia's General Assembly, all of the 236 elected officials represent Georgia.
And having this many seats here in the General Assembly
allows for Georgians to be well represented in their legislature.
It's a lot better to have a representative who comes from your town or neighborhood
compared to one who has to represent 15 counties in your region.
So have a look at your district and who represents you.
How similar the interests of everyone in your district,
and do those interests tend to match that of your elected official?
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