Stop the steal: It’s time to end partisan gerrymandering for good | Opinion

Every decade, America conducts a new census count, and then states redraw congressional boundaries. This is required by Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, as amended by Section 2 of the 14th Amendment.

But recently, the president called for an uncommon mid-decade redistricting in Texas, stating that Republicans there were “entitled to five more seats.” Texas Republicans obliged, changing congressional maps so they would most likely lead to five more seats for Republicans. California Democrats then responded by voting on a redrawn congressional map of their own, which would most likely lead to five new Democrat seats. Touché.

If the battle is to try to increase a party’s power in Congress — which it is — political parties in other states will certainly follow suit. The result is a never-ending race to the bottom.

Political redistricting, or “gerrymandering,” insulates congressional districts by moving boundaries around to push political undesirables into other districts.

What results is a system where politicians are able to pick their voters. Now does that sound proper?

When politicians are able to pick their own voters, they make the lines as favorable as possible to their re-election. And when that happens, there increasingly is no reason for them to attempt to compromise in Congress to get anything done.

And when Congress can’t get anything done, the president just issues more executive orders.

Executive orders in Trump’s second term have skyrocketed at a blistering rate. If the president continues at the current rate, his number of executive orders will eclipse the rate of all U.S. presidents since FDR’s first term.

Furthermore, it’s no surprise that Americans have an increasingly unfavorable view of Congress’s ability to get things done. A large part of that is due to the irresponsible acts of political parties involved in gerrymandering their districts.

Over the years, congressional districts have become so red or blue that we don’t see as many challenging general elections anymore. In 1998, there were 164 competitive congressional districts. In 2014, there were only 90 districts considered competitive.

Ballotpedia found that number had decreased to 54 in 2024 — out of 435 total districts.

Idaho is unique because in 1996 the Legislature had the forethought to place the job of redistricting with an independent commission. The Legislature gave the commission several criteria to govern its decisions, such as preserving traditional neighborhoods and local communities of interest. Of note, preserving political power was not among those criteria.

Very few other states have independent redistricting commissions. But get this — one of them is California. With the Texas move, Democrats in California decided that it would be political malfeasance to abide by its citizen-approved independent commission.

The sad irony is that gerrymandering makes re-election easier, but it makes actually doing the job of legislating much more difficult. Gerrymandered districts simply ignore the political realities of our diverse federal system. Meanwhile, the approval rating for Congress continues to plummet and the power of the president grows ever-stronger.

What’s more, Idaho’s independent commission is hardly safe — just look at what happened in California. And at least one major Idaho political party’s platform supports moving the job of redistricting back to the politicians.

Bad idea.

It’s high time that Americans have the guts to pass a constitutional amendment requiring all states to draw their congressional boundaries by independent commissions. Let’s keep political line-drawing out of the hands of politicians. Let the people choose their representatives, not the other way around.

Sean J. Coletti is the mayor of Ammon, a small city in eastern Idaho.