Where do we draw the line? Gerrymandering and democracy | Claire Witalec | TEDxHunting Valley

Voters are supposed to pick their politicians. In redistricting, politicians pick their voters. Claire Witalec shows how packing and cracking quietly decide elections before a ballot is cast, why both parties do it, and what an ordinary citizen can actually do about it, starting this week. Claire Witalec is a rising junior at Laurel School in Shaker Heights, Ohio. She is a Democracy Summer Fellow, a research intern at the Matriots, the founder of Laurel's Girl Up chapter, and a Lincoln-Douglas debater working to grow young people's civic participation and turnout. She has cold-emailed Ohio state legislators with questions about voting and representation, and they met with her. Her talk, “Where Do We Draw the Line?,” traces gerrymandering from an 1812 Massachusetts map to the districts drawn around today's voters, shows how both parties use packing and cracking to pick their own electorates, and argues that redistricting is not a Democrats versus Republicans issue but a people versus politicians one, ending with what any citizen can actually do about it. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx