quality:corruption
The term gerrymandering is a portmanteau of a salamander and Elbridge Gerry, Vice President of the United States at the time of his death, who, as governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area that was compared to the shape of a mythological salamander. The term has negative connotations, and gerrymandering is almost always considered a corruption of the democratic process. The word gerrymander (/ ˈ dʒ ɛr i ˌ m æ n d ər, ˈ ɡ ɛr i -/) can be used both as a verb for the process and as a noun for a resulting district.