Tipping the scales toward autocracy

A geographer's perspective of modern gerrymandering

Gerrymandering— an original American sin with new superpowers — represents not just an electoral injustice, but a uniquely geographical one.

As a geographer, I know that every line on a map carries meaning. These boundaries decide whether a neighborhood’s voice echoes in the halls of power or gets swallowed by the statistical noise of a rigged district.

It’s the same science I used in public health to track the spread of a virus, except here the contagion is disenfranchisement, creeping outward through coordinates and census blocks.

When you understand the geography, you see the patterns: minority communities split like puzzle pieces, urban voters siphoned off into sprawling rural districts, natural boundaries ignored in favor of partisan gain.

Maps don’t just describe reality—they create it. And they can distort it just as easily. And when the people drawing them are driven by power instead of fairness, the map itself becomes the weapon.