States Struggling to Overcome Political Manipulation of Gerrymandering

The late Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., who died in 2018, once represented a district called "the Earmuff District" because of its unusual shape. File photo from 2016. J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

In New York state, the late Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) once represented what was called the Earmuff District.

It took in a round part of Buffalo, a similarly shaped one in Rochester 60 miles away, and joined them with a narrow strip drawn along the Lake Ontario shore.