Voters, Gerrymandering Steals Your Power. Don’t Let It

Republicans in Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana rushed to gerrymander congressional districts this week. Mississippi scheduled a special session for May 20 to revise its maps, and lawmakers in South Carolina are talking about extending their legislative session to do the same. The scramble follows last week’s US Supreme Court ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act, which came in time to allow states to redraw their maps — even though in some states, voting has already started.

Legislatures normally spend years evaluating options before redistricting, but when the court gave Republican-controlled states an opening to erase predominantly Black and Latino districts for partisan gain, lawmakers in the South showed they could move quite fast. The question now is how the public will react.