A group of 50 experts and scholars gathered in Salt Lake City this week to confront what they consider to be one of the greatest threats to democracy in America: partisan gerrymandering.
Although the group members represent a wide array of interests and backgrounds, they all agreed that partisan manipulation of voting district boundaries to benefit one party over another, a practice known as gerrymandering, is a continually growing threat.
Michael McDonald, a professor in the department of public and international affairs at George Mason University, said the current makeup of the House of Representatives is largely a result of gerrymandering.
"If you look at the overall level of competition to members of the (House) in elections, you find that 99 percent of incumbents are re-elected," he said.
David Skaggs, a former congressman, said that gerrymandering is nothing new, but its effect is greater than ever before.
"There was never a golden age of redistricting, but it's safe to say that things are worse now," he said. "Technological changes have enabled the darker side of redistricting to take hold."
Modern mapping technologies and more information on voters has made gerrymandering more effective, said David Mermin, a campaign strategist and conference member.
Several conference members believe that partisan gerrymandering has pushed the moderate voice out of politics.
"(The) allegiances tend to be to the hardcore partisans in either party…they have carved out the moderate middle in our politics where most of the necessary compromises are made," Skaggs said.
Conference members say that preventing or restricting gerrymandering will make elections more competitive.
"What we need is a good mix, and drawing districts solely to protect incumbents for a partisan advantage… that hollows out that middle," McDonald said.
The group hopes to find ways to prevent gerrymandering from occurring. A popular idea is the creation of a bipartisan independent commission to oversee the drawing of congressional district lines.
The findings of the conference will be published in early fall.
Ryan Alexander, executive director of the Common Cause Education Fund, said constituents can help to discourage gerrymandering.
"If the American public is purple and our representatives are red and blue, we need to energize the American public to make sure that their representatives hear from them," she said.
McDonald hopes that the efforts to reform redistricting will not be labeled as a partisan effort.
"It seems like we're talking about how we want to throw the Republicans out of the majority, and that's not what we're talking about," he said. "We're talking about trying to make Congress more responsive."
The three-day conference, hosted by the Hinckley Institute of Politics, ends today.
