Ever wonder why Congress can maintain a 10% approval rating while still having an incumbent re-election rate over 90%?

Well, the answer's pretty simple and it's called Gerrymandering. It's the process by which state legislatures map districts to guarantee victories for a number of their candidates, regardless of how voters feel.

A legislature held by Party A can deprive Party B of Congressional seats by two redistricting strategies: packing and cracking.

Packing means that they map a district containing a huge majority of Party B supporters, minimizing their effect in the rest of the state. Cracking means that they make sure members of party B are in the minority of most districts by spreading them out between districts.

The result is some really funky-looking districts.

Looking at the round of redistricting prior to the current one, we took some of the weirdest-shaped districts from the 112th Congress, reflected them so that they're symmetrical, and put them up against the famous Rorschach inkblot test.

Can you tell the difference between a gerrymandered congressional district and a Rorschach inkblot?