Georgia State University Law Review Volume 35 Article 7 Issue 2 Winter 2018-2019 2-1-2019 Partisan Gerrymandering and Georgia: Red, White, and Blue or Just Red and Blue? Michael C. Freeman Jr. Georgia State University College of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/gsulr Part of the Law and Politics Commons, and the State and Local Government Law Commons Recommended Citation Michael C. Freeman Jr., Partisan Gerrymandering and Georgia: Red, White, and Blue or Just Red and Blue?, 35 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. (2019). Available at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/gsulr/vol35/iss2/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Publications at Reading Room. It has been accepted for inclusion in Georgia State University Law Review by an authorized editor of Reading Room. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Freeman: Partisan Gerrymandering and Georgia: Red, White, and Blue or Just PARTISAN GERRYMANDERING AND GEORGIA: RED, WHITE, AND BLUE OR JUST RED AND BLUE? M. Christopher Freeman, Jr.* INTRODUCTION In 1811, the recently elected Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry approved a plan to redraw electoral districts in favor of the Democratic-Republican Party over the opposing Federalist Party.1 However, the plan and the following year’s state senate election results resulted in considerable political and public opposition.2 Although the popular vote was nearly split between the Democratic- Republicans and the Federalists, the former won twenty-nine of the forty available seats: nearly seventy-five percent.3 One of the new districts created by the plan, Essex, became the center of criticism for its highly unusual and serpentine shape, weaving back and forth across county lines and splitting towns in two.4 Political cartoonists, leaping at the opportunity to further deride Governor Gerry’s redistricting plan, added talons, wings, eyes, and teeth to the Essex * J.D.