What is gerrymandering?

Gerrymandering refers to the practice of manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts to favor one political party or group over another. This is often achieved by either "packing" voters of a particular party into a single district to concentrate their voting power or "cracking" them across multiple districts to dilute their influence. This practice can lead to unrepresentative outcomes where election results do not accurately reflect the will of the voters within those districts.

The other options do not capture the essence of gerrymandering. Conducting a fair election focuses on ensuring integrity and equal representation, which is the opposite of what gerrymandering aims to achieve. Reducing the voting age pertains to changes in voting rights and eligibility rather than the manipulation of district boundaries. Distributing resources to electoral districts is related to allocation of government funding or services, which again does not inherently involve the strategic redesigning of electoral maps for political gain. Thus, the appropriate definition of gerrymandering is about the manipulation of electoral boundaries for political advantage.