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estimated a pro-Republican bias, in non-Southern states, of about six percentage points as
of 1962 (meaning that with 50 percent of the vote for the two main parties, the
Republican Party could expect about 56 percent of the seats). After the wave of
redistricting in 1966, this bias all but disappeared.33 Southern states, it should be noted,
are almost universally omitted from redistricting studies of this period since, at the time,
the Democratic Party utterly dominated the vote in the South, general elections there were
rarely competitive, and turnout was much lower than in the North. However, once the
Republican Party established a presence in the South, evidence of a Democratic partisan
bias became clear. Since then, pro-Republican gerrymanders have largely corrected this
advantage, though at the state level some have significantly overcompensated. Moreover,
the net effect of partisan gerrymandering since 1966 is generally believed to be small and,
on the whole, has been found to reduce rather than exaggerate overall partisan biases in
the American political system.34
Analyses of the individual redistricting cycles are consistent in finding minimal or no
partisan effects, but due to varying methodologies, they often differ as to which party
benefited when they do find effects. In examining the 1970 redistricting efforts, one study
argues that the status quo was maintained, producing no noticeable partisan advantage,
while another found a small pro-Republican bias.35 Similarly, in 1980, one study identifies
a pro-Democratic bias, and a second shows a small pro-Republican advantage.36 The
1990 cycle is thought to have either benefited only incumbents or evinced a latent pro-
Republican advantage.37 Finally, the available literature on the 2000 redistricting cycle
shows no real partisan consequence. While the 2003 out-of-cycle redistricting efforts in
Texas and Georgia had substantial pro-Republican effects, they both seem to have worked
to offset large preexisting pro-Democratic bias in those states. When the Supreme Court
reviewed the constitutionality of the Texas redistricting plan famously orchestrated by
former Representative Tom DeLay, in League of United Latin American Citizens et al. v.
Perry et al., it confirmed that gerrymandering for partisan purposes is not unconstitutional.
With some minor adjustments to correct for violations of the race requirements established
in the Voting Rights Act of 1964, the Texas plan was left intact.
Clearly, partisan redistricting has the potential to create a significant and sustainable bias
within the political system and overrepresent the interest of one party at the expense of
the other. However, since 1966 the most effective partisan gerrymanders have typically
moved the state in question from a severe bias favoring one party to a slight bias favoring
the other, and collectively, the redistricting efforts of the last 40 years seem to have
worked to reduce the overall level of partisan bias within the political system.38
Counting prisoners and citizens overseas. The census data that Congress uses to
reapportion seats and that most state legislatures use to redraw district lines is often quite
controversial, since nominally technical or administrative determinations have obvious and
immediate political impact. The census includes children, noncitizens, institutionalized
people, and other groups that are not permitted to vote. It also counts federal employees
and military personnel who are overseas, adding them to the totals for their home states
and districts, but excludes nongovernmental workers living abroad.
One of the more contentious outcomes of the 2000 census was the allocation of the
435th House seat to North Carolina, which edged out Utah by just 857 residents. In an
unsuccessful suit brought in federal court, Utah argued that Mormon missionaries serving
overseas should be treated no differently than federal employees working abroad.39 In
fact, if Mormons on missions overseas were counted, Utah, with 11,176, would have been

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