Because redistricting is coming up soon, I'd like to issue a reminder for lay people: "gerrymandering" does not mean "the districts look weird."
If you want an easy way to tell if a map is a gerrymander, overlay the map on top of a map of the state's large cities and check how often cities are arbitrarily chopped up or grouped with unrelated cities.
Both Democratic and Republican gerrymanders tend to do this.
Both Democratic and Republican gerrymanders tend to do this.
Republican gerrymanders will group together unrelated small cities and chop up larger cities so most districts containing them are rural.
Democratic gerrymanders will group together unrelated rural areas and chop up larger rural areas so most districts containing them are urban.
Democratic gerrymanders will group together unrelated rural areas and chop up larger rural areas so most districts containing them are urban.
(Although if you already suspect something's a gerrymander by the criteria I laid out, an easy shortcut is to just check which party controlled the legislature that drew it, assuming the legislature draws maps in that state.)
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