Why is redrawing election maps named after a salamander?

Gerrymandering, drawing election districts to help one side win, is named after a salamander because of one very strange map. In 1812 the governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, signed a bill redrawing the state's senate districts to favour his own party. One district around Boston twisted so oddly that people said it looked like a salamander. On 26 March 1812 the Boston Gazette printed the word "Gerry-mander", along with a cartoon showing the district as a creature with claws, wings and a dragon-like head.

The trick behind it still works the same way. In a system where each district elects one winner, any vote that doesn't help elect someone is wasted: either it went to the loser, or it piled up beyond what the winner needed. Whoever draws the lines can exploit that. "Packing" crams the other side's voters into a few districts they win by huge margins. "Cracking" scatters them across many districts where they always fall just short. As one professor put it, the politicians pick their voters instead of the voters picking their politicians.

It worked in 1812. The rival Federalists won the state house and the governorship, and Gerry lost his job, but the redrawn senate stayed firmly in his party's hands. Ironically, Gerry reportedly disapproved of the practice that made his name immortal.

The tactic is still with us. In Wisconsin's 2012 election, one party won 61% of the 99 legislative districts with 48.6% of the vote. Many countries, including the UK, Canada and Australia, now hand the map-drawing to neutral bodies to take the temptation away.