William A. Lee III is an attorney, former chair of the Maine Ethics Commission and former adjunct professor in government and administrative science at Colby College.

The term “gerrymander” means to draw electoral districts to favor one party over another. The word originated from the actions of Elbridge Gerry, a governor of Massachusetts in the early 1800s, who signed a partisan redistricting bill. To some people, one of the electoral districts he drew resembled a salamander. They coined the term gerrymander to describe his actions, and the term stuck.

Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution requires redistricting of House districts every 10 years, according to census results. Article I, Section 4, of the Constitution allows Congress to set the time, place and manner of holding federal elections. The Constitution also allows Congress to override the states and set the time, place and manner of elections.

This authority was confirmed in the 2019 gerrymandering case of Rucho v. Common Cause, where the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, held that excessive gerrymandering is a political question that it could not resolve. However, the Court confirmed the authority of Congress to act in this area when Chief Justice Roberts stated: “The Framers gave Congress the power to do something about gerrymandering.”

Presently in two-thirds of the states the legislature draws the federal electoral districts. In most of the remaining states the federal electoral districts are drawn by an independent commission, with a few states employing a hybrid system.

In Maine, a 15-member commission recommends district boundaries to the Legislature, which may accept or modify the recommendations by a two-thirds vote. If the Legislature fails to adopt a plan, the state supreme court makes the final decision. The Maine model would not work in some states to eliminate gerrymandering, as some states have a two-thirds majority for one party.

While Americans are divided on some issues, our opinion of Congress is not one of them. In some polls Congress only has only about a 15% approval rating. In most states, the results of elections for the House of Representatives are a foregone conclusion. The state legislatures have gerrymandered the electoral districts so that the candidate of a particular party is virtually guaranteed to be elected.

Consequently, candidates with fringe views can be elected and have little motivation to consider the views of constituents who may have a different viewpoint. The result is a House of Representatives with extreme partisanship that can seldom reach bipartisan agreements.

Recently the situation has grown even worse. President Trump, out of fear that Republicans will lose the House of Representatives in 2026, demanded that Texas redraw its House districts to add Republican seats. Gov. Abbott and the Republican majority legislature cravenly complied, potentially adding five more Republican seats.

California and some other states then followed suit. This is a race to the bottom and has state legislatures, not the citizens, effectively electing members to the House of Representatives. Through the use of sophisticated computer technology, a legislature can draw districts to virtually guarantee the election of the nominee of a particular party. The Supreme Court recently affirmed the Texas redistricting, which will encourage other states to follow. 

 Approximately three-quarters of the American public opposes gerrymandering. To eliminate gerrymandering, the Redistricting Reform Act, of which Sen. Angus King is a co-sponsor, was introduced in 2025. The Act would prohibit mid-decade redistricting and require each state to create independent redistricting commissions to draw districts for federal elections.

Sen. Susan Collins has previously opposed more comprehensive electoral district reform bills, concerned that they may be partisan. Politically balanced independent commissions produce nonpartisan results.

For example, the Maine Ethics Commission is a five-member independent commission composed of two Republicans, two Democrats and one independent that decides allegations of violations of Maine’s election laws. In the six years I served on the commission, we decided hundreds of cases, with the overwhelming majority of them being unanimous decisions.  

For the Redistricting Reform Act to have any chance of passage it must have the support of some Republicans. If you want to see an end to gerrymandering, contact Sen. Collins and urge her to support it.