Eric Walters, age 14, of Longview, Wash., for his question:

WHAT IS GERRYMANDER?

Gerrymander is the practice of dividing a city, state or country into voting districts in an unfair way. The gerrymander is generally used by a party in power as a way of keeping its power.

The word gerrymander comes from the name of Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. The State Leglislature in 1812 divided Massachusetts into districts for the election of state senators. The division grouped together certain counties that had large Federalist majorities. In this way, the Federalists could win only a few seats in the Legislature by huge majorities, while their opponents could win many more seats by small majorities.

One of the districts had a shape that looked much like a mythical animal. Some people said it looked like a salamander, but a suggestion came that it should be called a gerrymander. The word became popular and later became part of the American language.