Lines of Power: Mid-decade redistricting is unethical and encourages dangerous power grabs

When playing a game of football with friends, the rules are simple and have already been agreed upon: whoever ends with the highest score wins.  But what if halfway through the game, one team decides to change the rules to favor themselves? Whether it's moving their goalposts closer to them or playing with an extra player, these changes may allow them to win — but at the cost of a fair game.

America has been the first on the field in the game of politics for the past 249 years. But Republicans are currently changing the rules not just in Missouri, but across the country — through mid-decade redistricting of congressional districts. Instead of making extra touchdowns, they’re giving themselves extra members in Congress.

Redistricting is supposed to happen every 10 years when the decennial census is released. The whole point of redistricting is to reflect population changes. Mid-decade redistricting acts upon no population changes and is merely a way to create gerrymandered district lines to favor one political party. In this case, it’s for the Republican Party. 

Gerrymandering mid-decade is unethical because it disrupts voter representation and encourages a trend of political power grabs in the future. 

The Missouri House of Representatives just passed a redistricted congressional map on Sept. 9. This will be the first time Missouri has done mid-decade redistricting in over 60 years. Isn’t it just so coincidental that this is happening just one year before the midterm elections?

Missouri has eight congressional districts. Under the current map, Republicans hold six of the districts, while Democrats hold the other two — Kansas City and St. Louis. But Missouri Republicans are trying to split Kansas City and dilute 5th district voters — who lean towards Democrat — into the surrounding 4th and 6th districts, creating a 7 to 1 Republican-leaning map. 

Since it is mid-decade, the decennial census hasn’t come out yet, so the lawmakers don’t have the credible data on population changes that would make redrawing the lines necessary. Republican lawmakers are simply disregarding citizens’ wants and manipulating their votes in a way that results in more power for their party.

It’s an obvious and wrongful overreach that does nothing but hurt voter representation. If the redrawn map gets passed, then one of the new congressional districts would combine parts of the Kansas City metro voters with farmers who live more than 250 miles away, according to NPR. 

Those two groups have very different needs and concerns. Farmers have concerns about things like crop prices, while city voters worry about public transportation. Their congressional representatives certainly cannot advocate for both.

This mid-decade redistricting abuse is hurting voters across the country as well. In Texas, Republicans are attempting to draw a new map that flips five democratic seats to favor Republicans. However, in doing so, they are weakening the electoral influence of minority groups to the extent that the NAACP has filed a lawsuit against the state, according to ABC News. 

The worst part is that all of this gerrymandering action isn’t something voters asked for; it's not even the state's politicians' idea.

Instead, the backing for the gerrymandering is coming from one man — President Donald J. Trump. 

Republican lawmakers are only pushing these redistricting efforts because it’s part of Trump’s plan to bolster Republicans’ chances of retaining control of Congress in next year’s elections, according to NPR.

This sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to a cycle in which presidents just demand that states slice up and rearrange their district lines in favor of them every time an election comes around. Next time, it may not be Republicans; it could be Democrats instead. Either way, it's not the party that matters; it's the lack of respect for the voters.

Already, states like California and New York are threatening retaliatory redistricting in their own districts to balance out the congressional seats gained by the Republicans’ gerrymandering. Lawmakers are trying to fight fire with fire, and in the end, it's only the voters who get burned.

A citizen’s vote matters, and to manipulate the boundary lines of congressional districts to allow for a Republican seat is simply manipulative and undemocratic. It defeats the purpose of voting for accurate representation and could discourage people from voting, since they know politicians don’t respect them. 

There will be more than eight million newly eligible voters in 2026 for midterms, according to the Civics Center. The majority of current SM East seniors will be a part of that group. How can they be expected to participate in voting when they see the politicians around them skirting the rules? It could lead to a severe decline in democracy, which is much more pressing than winning the midterms.

Instead of relying on shady strategies and cutting corners with mid-decade gerrymandering, politicians should be out campaigning in the districts they are struggling in. Breaking news: politicians should actually do their job and earn people’s votes.

Democrats and Republicans may have the biggest rivalry in the game of politics. But if the game is tough and the competition is fierce, the solution is to compete, not to cheat. 

Especially when such cheating comes at the cost of democracy.