Hijacking

Definition

Hijacking is a gerrymandering technique where electoral district boundaries are redrawn to place an incumbent representative's residence outside their current district. This forces the incumbent to either run in an unfamiliar district where they have less name recognition and support, or compete against another incumbent from the same party. Hijacking is one of the primary redistricting strategies used alongside cracking and packing to manipulate electoral outcomes.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

1. Hijacking is most effective after redistricting when new district maps significantly alter boundaries.
2. This technique can eliminate incumbents without voters directly voting them out, changing representation through map manipulation rather than electoral choice.
3. Hijacking often targets incumbents from the minority party but can also be used in intra-party conflicts during primary elections.
4. State legislatures that control redistricting can use hijacking alongside cracking and packing to secure long-term partisan advantages.
5. Courts have sometimes struck down redistricting plans that employ hijacking when it disproportionately affects minority communities, violating the Voting Rights Act.

Review Questions

• How does hijacking differ from cracking and packing as a gerrymandering technique?
  • While cracking disperses a group's voters across districts and packing concentrates them into few districts, hijacking specifically targets individual incumbents by redrawing boundaries so they no longer live in their district. Cracking and packing manipulate voter populations, whereas hijacking manipulates candidate eligibility by relocating district lines around specific residences.
• Explain how hijacking affects political representation and incumbency advantage.
  • Hijacking undermines incumbency advantage by forcing representatives to campaign in unfamiliar territory where they lack established voter relationships, donor networks, and name recognition. This can lead to the removal of experienced legislators without direct voter choice, potentially disrupting constituent services and reducing electoral accountability since the outcome is determined by mapmakers rather than voters.
• Analyze the relationship between hijacking and the decennial census in the United States political system.
  • The census triggers mandatory redistricting every ten years, creating opportunities for hijacking. Population shifts documented in the census require boundary adjustments, which controlling parties can exploit to strategically redraw lines around incumbent opponents' homes. This cycle means hijacking is most common immediately after census-driven redistricting, making census data and the subsequent map-drawing process powerful tools for political manipulation.

Related terms

Cracking:

A gerrymandering strategy that dilutes a group's voting power by splitting them across multiple districts so they cannot form a majority in any.

Packing:

A gerrymandering strategy that concentrates voters of one type into a single district to minimize their influence in surrounding districts.

Gerrymandering:

The practice of manipulating electoral district boundaries to favor a particular political party or group.

Redistricting:

The process of redrawing electoral district boundaries, typically after each census, to reflect population changes.