Begs the question: What in the world is a “Gerrymander?”

Editor’s Note: The following editorial piece reflects the opinion of the writer and does not represent the position of the newspaper on the topic.

There’s been a lot of talk about Gerrymandering since President Donald Trump urged Texas legislators to redraw the state’s election map to give Republicans an estimated five additional congressional seats – which the legislature promptly did, in a special session last summer.

Since then, the new map has been off again (by a three-federal-judge panel in El Paso, which ruled that the map was drawn on illegal racial grounds) to the U.S. Supreme Court, where conservative Justice Samuel Alito (nominated by President George W. Bush) put the ruling on hold pending a Texas attorney general’s appeal.