Jerry and the Manders

[bluegargantua]

Hi,

Could someone explain this to me:

There are a couple of on-going judicial fights concerning re-districting in Colorado and Texas. With each new Census, states have the opportunity to redraw congressional district lines and they usually get redrawn to benefit the political party in charge at the state level. And every time this comes up there's bitter wrangling about how the pie gets sliced.

Isn't it possible that you could develop an mathematical formula to create congressional districts? One that is only concerned with producing N number of shapes, where those shapes are as regular as possible and where each shape holds (100/N)% of the state's population? Is there any reason (aside from political power games) why this wouldn't be a better solution?

I realize that such a formula would generate a number of usable results. And in closely divided states, some configurations might be better for one party than another. But it seems difficult to imagine that any advantage gained would be radically better. And if people would just submit to a blind redistricting, it might better reflect the actual political will of the people (which is, muddy and conflicted). At the very least it would eliminate a huge amount of the political squabbling that has led to fugitive state senators and courtroom battles.

Plus, if they use a hex grid, you can play wargames on it...
Tom

Comments

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Reasonable options never enter into politics. Its to the victors belong the spoils syndrome.

[qarylla.livejournal.com]

That should be perfect for Texas. The state just screams "I am a war game zone."

[kadath.livejournal.com]

That sounds reasonable, straightforward, and impartial. Therefore, there is no chance of it or anything even remotely similar to it ever being implemented. Our government is composed of lawyers, remember.

Redistricting shuffle

[that-xmas.livejournal.com]

There are other forces than just pure political party purgation at work in redistricting. You also have socio-economic games at play here. Sure, using simple geometry to encompass the appropriate population numbers will work, but it could clump all the rich towns together or all of the poor. It could dilute the number of minority voters among several districts instead of putting them all in one. It also could cause some reasonable but oddly shaped districts to be broken up, diluting the voice of, let say, all the people that live in a river valley, or in the mountain region of a state.

Re: Redistricting shuffle

[kadath.livejournal.com]

All the more reason to switch from winner-take-all to something like, say, instant runoff.

[neuromancerzss.livejournal.com]

There's lots of algorithms out there already that could do exactly that. But that would make sense.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

ok, not commenting on the content, but LOVE the subject. it took scrolling past it fast in order to get it, but you know....

Indeed...

[ladypantherrr.livejournal.com]

politics isn't known to make sense in this regard, don't get me started on the whole continued existence of the Electoral College... *sigh*