In the 2012 elections, it appears that Democrats won the popular vote for House seats by a narrow margin, 49 percent to 48.2 percent, according to The Washington Post. So how did Republicans expand their margin to win the “second-biggest House majority in 60 years and their third-biggest since the Great Depression”?

Gerrymandering! That’s how. Republicans redrew the district boundary lines in key states to favor themselves. In Pennsylvania, Mother Jones reports, Democrats received half of all votes cast in contests for the House, but Republicans took roughly three-quarters of the seats. The same thing happened in North Carolina. Democrats took more votes than Republicans in Michigan, but won only five of the state’s 14 congressional positions.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.