| The voting district map above shows the Los Angeles area after the notorious gerrymander by the Democrats in 1981. The congressional districts shown controlled elections to Congress for ten years. Despite the fact that Republicans cast a majority of votes throughout that decade, this unfairly drawn map allowed the Democrats to elect a large majority of California congressmen. Out of the five hundred eighty legislative seats determined by elections in the following eight years, only nine incumbents lost. The red-colored district along the southern coast is an example of gerrymandering by packing, one of the three methods of gerrymandering. The district meandered around picking up Republicans wherever they could be found and packed them into one district. This political manipulation created Democrat majorities in the neighboring districts, increasing the number of Democrats in Congress. Representative Phillip Burton created this map using nothing more than a hand-held calculator. The gerrymanders recently perpetrated by Republicans in Colorado, Texas, and Pennsylvania using computers and redistricting software make Burton look like a novice. Both parties gerrymander when they are in power.
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