University of Northern Iowa UNI ScholarWorks Dissertations and Theses @ UNI Student Work 2019 The erosion of democracy: Gerrymandering in the United States Matthew P. Ruiz University of Northern Iowa Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy Copyright ©2019 Matthew P. Ruiz Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd Part of the American Politics Commons, and the Human Geography Commons Recommended Citation Ruiz, Matthew P., "The erosion of democracy: Gerrymandering in the United States" (2019). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 954. https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/954 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses @ UNI by an authorized administrator of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Copyright by MATTHEW P. RUIZ 2019 All Rights Reserved THE EROSION OF DEMOCRACY: GERRYMANDERING IN THE UNITED STATES An Abstract of a Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Matthew P. Ruiz University of Northern Iowa May 2019 ABSTRACT Every ten years in the United States, we redraw our congressional districts that elect the 435 members of the House of Representatives after the decennial census data has been collected and organized. Politicians around the country have taken to using these map revisions for their party’s own political gains and have been doing so since the time even before the United States Constitution was ratified. This process where politicians draw district lines to favor their own party and expand their political power is called gerrymandering (Trickey, 2017). The purpose of this mixed method study is to understand the impact gerrymandering has on democracy in the United States, examining six states specifically at the federal level. The six states examined for this study are Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, and Washington State. A qualitative analysis of the literature triangulated with a GIS spatial analysis of the six states answers whether or not specific locations in the US can be characterized as less democratic based on their political geography, as well as a discussion of how maps that are not gerrymandered could be drawn. THE EROSION OF DEMOCRACY: GERRYMANDERING IN THE UNITED STATES A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Matthew P. Ruiz University of Northern Iowa May 2019 ii This Study by: Matthew Ruiz Entitled: The Erosion of Democracy: Gerrymandering in the United States Has been approved as meeting the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts ___________ ______________________________________________________ Date Dr. Lisa Millsaps, Chair, Thesis Committee ___________ ______________________________________________________ Date Dr. Alex Oberle, Thesis Committee Member ___________ ______________________________________________________ Date Dr. Kay Weller, Thesis Committee Member ___________ ______________________________________________________ Date Dr. Jennifer Waldron, Dean, Graduate College iii DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this work to the individual I’m hoping to inspire, my son, Maddux P. Ruiz. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to first thank the University of Northern Iowa geography department for allowing me this opportunity. It wouldn’t have been without the department’s faith in me that I would have been able to be part of the program and complete this work ultimately. I would also like to thank my advisor, Dr. Lisa Millsaps, for all of the time she has sacrificed in order to read draft after draft of this work as well as being constantly interrupted from her own work so that we could sit in her office and split hairs. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 Research Problem ............................................................................................................ 4 Research Questions ......................................................................................................... 4 Research Objectives ........................................................................................................ 5 Study Area ....................................................................................................................... 5 Definitions ....................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................ 9 Gerrymandering: History and Salience ......................................................................... 10 Effects of Gerrymandering ............................................................................................ 14 Methods of Understanding and Analyzing Gerrymandering ........................................ 15 Previous Gerrymandering Research .............................................................................. 17 Case Studies: Gerrymandered States ............................................................................. 18 North Carolina ........................................................................................................... 18 Pennsylvania .............................................................................................................. 21 Wisconsin .................................................................................................................. 23 Case Studies: States That Seek To Avoid Gerrymandering .......................................... 26 Arizona ...................................................................................................................... 26 Iowa ........................................................................................................................... 28 Washington ................................................................................................................ 32 CHAPTER 3 METHODS ................................................................................................. 35 Discussion of Methods .................................................................................................. 35 vi Study Area ..................................................................................................................... 36 Analysis Methods .......................................................................................................... 37 CHAPTER 4 RESULTS ................................................................................................... 39 North Carolina ............................................................................................................... 39 Pennsylvania .................................................................................................................. 45 Wisconsin ...................................................................................................................... 51 Arizona .......................................................................................................................... 57 Iowa ............................................................................................................................... 62 Washington .................................................................................................................... 67 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION........................................................................................... 74 The Big Picture .............................................................................................................. 74 Highlights from Each State ........................................................................................... 76 Answering the Research Questions ............................................................................... 79 Responding to Gerrymandering .................................................................................... 81 Contributions to the Literature ...................................................................................... 81 Limitations to the Study ................................................................................................ 82 Future Research ............................................................................................................. 83 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 83 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 85 APPENDIX A NORTH CAROLINA .............................................................................. 89 APPENDIX B PENNSYLVANIA ................................................................................. 101 APPENDIX C WISCONSIN .......................................................................................... 113 APPENDIX D ARIZONA .............................................................................................. 125 APPENDIX E IOWA ....................................................................................................