Gerrymandering
Definition
The practice of manipulating the boundaries of electoral constituencies to favor one political party or group, often creating irregularly shaped districts.
A form of electoral fraud where district lines are redrawn to dilute the voting power of certain populations, named after Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry, whose 1812 redistricting produced a salamander-shaped district.
Examples
The incumbent party's gerrymandering turned a competitive swing district into a pretzel that only they could love.
Thanks to clever gerrymandering, the opposition's votes piled up like snowdrifts in one corner of the map, melting away elsewhere.
Gerrymandering: the art of making democracy look like a Rorschach test drawn by a toddler with a grudge.
Politicians praised the new gerrymandering plan as 'innovative cartography,' but voters just saw it as electoral origami.