system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does gerrymandering work?
gpt
Let’s say there are 30 cats and 20 dogs. We split them into 10 groups of 5. These animals must now vote for which animal is better within their groups, and the only the overall vote by the group matters.

If each group contains 3 cats and 2 dogs, the cats win in every group. 100% of the votes goes to cats, who win the “election”.

If you had 6 groups with 3 dogs and 2 cats, you end up with 60% of the group votes going to dogs, who win the “election”.

Gerrymandering can drastically alter the overall votes from the actual population, because the way you group people can “eliminate” votes you do not want.