To manipulate the boundaries of electoral districts in a way that unfairly advantages one political party or group over another.
Created from Elbridge Gerry, a Massachusetts governor, and 'salamander,' after a strangely-shaped electoral district was said to look like a salamander. The term originated from an 1812 political cartoon.
Gerrymandering was supposedly invented by accident when a Boston newspaper cartoonist was drawing a joke about an oddly-shaped district and another person pointed out it looked like a salamander—creating a term that's now used worldwide.
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