cracking
Cracking is a form of gerrymandering that consists of drawing district boundaries to spread a particular community thinly across multiple districts to split their vote and lessen the effectiveness of their votes. For example, a large minority neighborhood may be split into pieces, even down to the street level, to ensure that their preferred candidate is not elected in any of the districts.
Compare to packing.
[Last reviewed in May of 2026 by the Wex Definitions Team]
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