Summary
This primer is a part of a series from the University of Chicago and describes the history and background of districting processes and reviews various reforms to improve redistricting. It provides a brief overview of some of the central factors involved in drawing districts, namely: 1) equal representation of population, 2) geography, 3) race, 4) party, 5) incumbency, 6) political boundaries and communities. Balancing these factors inevitably leads to tradeoffs, and the primer discusses how independent commissions, often viewed as an area for reform, have impacted this process. The primer concludes that independent commissions likely improve districts, but that the effect is limited and is often difficult to disaggregate from other interventions such as legal constraints on districts that are often implemented at the same time as commissions. The primer also discusses how split government can lead to more fairly drawn districts due to the compromise necessary to pass the maps. It concludes that the level of partisan biases at the national level are minimal and notes that the primer does not answer the question of how constraints on maps impact how commissions draw maps.