“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work, reporting or approval of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com.
An Independent Primary: The Key to Ending Gerrymandering and the Battle for Majority Control
A perspective from Andrew Dykers
Headlines from Texas and California make clear what most Americans already know: gerrymandering has pushed democracy into crisis. Maps are being drawn not to represent voters fairly but to entrench whichever party already holds majority control. Reformers propose commissions and racially based lawsuits, both of which have merit. Unfortunately, those efforts ignore the connection between our treatment of independent voters and the growing dysfunction of our democracy. The real problem in American politics — the one that drives the fight — is the battle for majority control of the legislature. Empowering independents is the key to defusing that battle and the gerrymandering that comes with it.
An independent primary — one in which independents choose their own candidates for the general election — would give them the same direct route to the general election ballot enjoyed by the two major parties. Even a modest increase in independent representation would be transformative. If independents held enough seats to deny either party a majority, the prize of unilateral control would vanish.
Independents are not a fringe category. They are the largest and fastest-growing segment of the electorate. Yet they are systematically sidelined by a two-party system obsessed with maintaining its control. Critics sometimes argue that independents “don’t stand for anything.” That misses the point entirely. Independents are a state-created category for the purpose of voting and deserve constitutional protection. Additionally, polling shows independents do stand for something vital: the principle that candidates should be chosen based on ideas and character, not political party.
Because Democrats and Republicans tend to live in clusters — dense urban centers on one side, rural strongholds on the other — mapmakers can manipulate lines with precision. However, unlike partisans, independents are spread more evenly across the map. Once they have a route of their own to the general election, any attempt to gerrymander must contend with two large and overlapping opposition blocs. That’s a geometrical nightmare for any mapmaker trying to engineer a partisan advantage.
For decades, gerrymandering has been an arms race to secure control. An independent primary would change the rules. It doesn’t just make gerrymandering more difficult — it makes it less valuable. An independent primary would shift the political power structure overnight, and cooperation would replace domination as the only way forward. Without the ability to govern alone or redraw maps unilaterally, the incentive to gerrymander collapses. Cooperation becomes a legislative necessity. New district maps would require broad agreement, producing fairer, more balanced lines.
If Americans truly want to end the destructive cycle of partisan mapmaking, we must stop treating gerrymandering as a technical flaw. It is the predictable symptom of a deeper disease: the battle for majority control. Break up that battle and the maps will finally begin to serve the people — not the parties. Empowering independents with a primary is the clearest and most constitutionally sound remedy available.
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
