Voters in each party have become more likely to support gerrymandering if it counters redistricting efforts that favor their political opponents, new polls show.
New YouGov surveys from this month show that many Americans say partisan gerrymandering — the practice of redrawing congressional districts to favor one party — is unfair. However, these polls also show that support for tit-for-tat gerrymandering — the practice of one state redistricting in order to counter gerrymandering in another state — has grown throughout August. This comes as California engages in a tit-for-tat redistricting battle with Texas.
This month, Texas lawmakers approved a new congressional map that is expected to ensure Republicans win five new districts. Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed the new map into law on Friday. President Donald Trump supported the effort, claiming earlier this month that Republicans are “entitled to five more seats.”
Before lawmakers approved the map, about 40 percent of Democrats said they would support their state redrawing its districts to favor their party if Texas changes its districts to favor Republicans, according to a YouGov survey taken in early August. After Texas lawmakers approved the map, about 53 percent of Democrats said they would support counter-redistricting, a YouGov survey from late August showed.
The YouGov polls showed a similar trend among Republicans after California Governor Gavin Newsom and other Democratic state leaders proposed a new congressional map to counter Texas’s efforts. California voters will decide in November whether they want to approve the new map, which could add up to five Democratic seats in Congress.
About 33 percent of Republicans said they would support their state redistricting to favor their party if California redraws its map to favor Democrats, according to an early-August YouGov poll. After Newsom put the map on the ballot, about 40 percent of Republicans said they would support counter-redistricting in their state, a late-August YouGov poll showed.
Over the course of this month, overall support has also grown for counter-redistricting. In early August, YouGov asked voters: “If a state redraws their districts for the U.S. House of Representatives to favor one party, do you think it is fair or unfair for other states to redraw their districts to favor the other party?”
Initially, about 51 percent of Americans said it was unfair, while about 23 percent said it was fair. But when YouGov asked again in late August, after Abbott signed the new map into law and Newsom launched his counter-redistricting effort, opinions were more evenly split. About 37 percent of Americans said counter-redistricting was fair, while 39 percent said it was unfair.
This growing support for counter-redistricting isn’t surprising, according to Alexander Rossell Hayes, a senior data scientist at YouGov.
“You can have these views, and they seem opposed, but they’re not totally inconsistent,” Hayes told The Hill.
He added: “It kind of makes sense, in a way, for someone to say, ‘I think gerrymandering should be banned at the national level. If it’s not going to be banned at the national level, and other states are doing it, we’ve got to do it too.’”
