If there was a way for one political party in America to stay in power forever, the best method would be gerrymandering, according to Harvard Beneficial Professor of Law Charles Fried. Gerrymandering, according to Fried, is a way to manipulate our voting system and weaken the most prominent aspect of democratic governments. Fried spoke to the Suffolk University students on Wednesday to deliver the message of the consequences of gerrymandering and what students can do about it.

“I did not know of the prominence in current day society of gerrymandering and [Fried] gave good perspective on [what is] going on right now,” said sophomore Micaela Clark in an interview with The Suffolk Journal. “They’re legislating this right now, that’s crazy.”

Elbridge Gerry, a politician for Massachusetts in 1744, manipulated the votes of his district in order to aid the re-election of his party, by creating new borders that mainly had his supporters. Since then, the practice of gerrymandering has only increased and spread worldwide, but as Fried shared, it has happened in America in every election cycle and is not exclusive to one party.

Gerrymandering did not go unrecognized, and after much pressure from the public, the Supreme Court established rules for how to draw borders in districts to have equal populations, having districts be compact in terms of size and to respect the county’s political borders. Now with the use of digital mapping, a political party can bypass the set rules that the Supreme Court had in place to avoid gerrymandering.

“They have data on every voter in the state, where that voter lives, how that voter has been registered over the years, and,” said Fried. “It’s very complex, but that’s what computers are for. And what are their instructions? We can do this anyway you want.”

Computers can create multiple maps that follow the rules but can still be biased toward one political party due to loopholes in the system.

In the era of President Donald Trump’s administration where Republicans have won most seats in the House and Senate, there appears to be possible damage that gerrymandering can do to the future of America’s democracy, according to Fried. The Democrats for the past elections are guilty of doing the same gerrymandering that Republicans are currently doing, he said

According to Fried, in 2012 the U.S. was 51.3 percent democratic, but only had 39.4 percent of seats in country, that has showed a clear imbalance in the value of the other 60.6 percent of Republican seats. In the following election year, the Republicans were able to fight back and gained 66 percent of the seats and shifted the country to 52 percent Republican.

“It will not be only a Republican issue, we’re doing this for the republic,” said Fried when telling his audience why gerrymandering should be eliminated.

In an interview with The Journal, professor Fried voiced advice to student bodies across the nation.

“Vote. Get involved in politics, that’s what I want you to do,” said Fried.