To the editor:

Gerrymandering is cheating, the political version of stacking a deck of cards in a poker game. In the 19th century, if a man was caught cheating at cards he was likely to win a bullet in the head.

All political parties indulge in gerrymandering from time to time. But today’s Republican Party has found that their message is so unpopular that the only way they can win elections is to stack the deck by whatever means they can.

The absurdity of gerrymandering was never clearer than our state Legislature linking Lawrence, surgically removed from Douglas County, to a vast area of ranchland 300 miles to the west to define a “district.”

Isn’t it high time that gerrymandering and unnecessary voter purges be banned, regardless of the source?

Chris Lane,

Lawrence