新闻英语词汇: gerrymander, gerrymandering_北京外宾旅游指南

新闻英语词汇 Journalism Vocabulary

gerrymander
verb [ T ] & noun /ˈdʒer·iˌmæn·dər/ US

Meaning
to divide the constituencies of (a voting area) so as to give one party an unfair advantage
选区变更（指某政党为了有利于胜选而改变选区的大小范围）

执政党主要想重新分配选区以确保其候选人获得最高票数，或者使反对党更难捍卫其席位。

该词起源于1811年，当时马萨诸塞州州长埃尔布里奇·格里（Elbridge Gerry）签署了一项法案，该法案创建了一个的形状类似蝾螈（salamander）的新区，

这一举动激怒了《波士顿宪报》的编辑说。该编辑说：“蝾螈（salamander）?，叫它 Gerrymander！吧”。Gerry + mander = gerrymander

Citation
Apart from his ongoing feud with Trump, Schwarzenegger has been on a crusade in recent years to end partisan gerrymandering, the controversial practice by which state legislatures draw electoral maps that are skewed toward one political party. It’s a practice that only seems to be becoming more intense, as statistical advancements have allowed mapmakers to pinpoint exactly where Democratic and Republican voters live. In the 2018 midterms, for example, according to The New York Times, Democrats in North Carolina got 48.3 percent of the total vote in House races, but won just three of 13 seats in the state.