Gerrymandering

[konradv]

The Democrats have been gerrymandering for over 100 years

LOL!!! MAGA thought they could beat us at it. What maroons!

 

[westwall]

Seems the Texas GOP started this, and the Supreme Court went along with it. So now in California and Virginia, the Dems are doing even better at gerrymandering. Your Rules, GOP.

MSN

You moron, the democrats have gerrymandered 5 states with 40 percent GOP population into NO congressional seats.

They did that years ago. Funny how you ignore that.

But that's ok, this goes to further show that the democrats ARE the party of fascism.

 

[konradv]

Even when they “need to be redrawn” , the party in power draws the districts in their favor.

That’s why it needs to be done by computer. No politics, just math and compact districts.

 

[WorldWatcher]

That’s why it needs to be done by computer. No politics, just math and compact districts.

And the software to do it based on population distribution, geological considerations ( mountains, rivers, etc.), and civic boundaries (county, city, township, etc.) lines already exists.

WW

 

[martybegan]

Seems the Texas GOP started this, and the Supreme Court went along with it. So now in California and Virginia, the Dems are doing even better at gerrymandering. Your Rules, GOP.

MSN

Look at how many people vote Republican in New England and how many Republicans the area sends to congress and you would see how wrong you are.

 

[rightwinger]

And the software to do it based on population distribution, geological considerations ( mountains, rivers, etc.), and civic boundaries (county, city, township, etc.) lines already exists.

WW

The SW that is actually used looks at party affiliation and probability of winning the district. You don’t want all your voters in one district.

Instead of voters selecting their representatives, representatives select their voters

 

[martybegan]

Some states, primarily blue states, have gone to nonpartisan redistricting commissions or passed amendments requiring redistricting to be done in a nonpartisan fashion.

it would be nice if the whole country could move this way, but since Republicans decided to go scorched earth, the Democratic Party responded in kind.

"Nonpartisan"

 

[Marener]

"Nonpartisan"

Your typical frame of mind is “anyone who says or does anything I don’t like is only doing so because they’re biased against me and my daddy Trump.”

That’s a very shallow existence.

 

[LeftofLeft]

Some states, primarily blue states, have gone to nonpartisan redistricting commissions or passed amendments requiring redistricting to be done in a nonpartisan fashion.

it would be nice if the whole country could move this way, but since Republicans decided to go scorched earth, the Democratic Party responded in kind.

Are any of the blue states you referenced in this list?

Some states, primarily blue states, have gone to nonpartisan redistricting commissions or passed amendments requiring redistricting to be done in a nonpartisan fashion.

it would be nice if the whole country could move this way, but since Republicans decided to go scorched earth, the Democratic Party responded in kind.

Are any of the blue states you mentioned in this list??

 

[Marener]

Are any of the blue states you referenced in this list?

View attachment 1246991

Are any of the blue states you mentioned in this list??

Most of those states have 1-2 seats, so it's hardly surprising that they don't have any elected Republicans?

Don't be a moron.

Home

Gerrymandering Project

gerrymander.princeton.edu

It sure looks to me like Republican states are better at gerrymandering than Democratic ones.

 

[rightwinger]

"Nonpartisan"

Easy to be nonpartisan

Use a computer program that doesn’t consider party affiliation or demographics

Base districts on geographic and town, county boundaries.

 

[martybegan]

Easy to be nonpartisan

Use a computer program that doesn’t consider party affiliation or demographics

Base districts on geographic and town, county boundaries.

There are still ways to be partisan.

 

[rightwinger]

There are still ways to be partisan.

You can make it much more difficult.
Insist on computer programs that don’t use party affiliation, wealth or demographics in drawing lines. Audit those programs to make sure

Also only allow redistricting after a census. Not after an election that changes the party in power

 

[Oddball]

Seems the Texas GOP started this, and the Supreme Court went along with it. So now in California and Virginia, the Dems are doing even better at gerrymandering. Your Rules, GOP.

MSN

Yeabbut they did it toooooooo!

The whining of a 3-year old.

 

[candycorn]

LOL. The vote was very close, nearly 50/50, so the democrats get 10 districts and Rs get 1.

So? Harris got like 45% of the vote. Somehow she got none of the office.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

It's now left up to the state's Supreme Court. Texas's and California's courts allowed it, so now we'll see if Virginia follows suit.

 

[Oddball]

Seems the Texas GOP started this

Liar.

How many (R) seats are there in the entirety of New England?

 

[Oddball]

It's now left up to the state's Supreme Court. Texas's and California's courts allowed it, so now we'll see if Virginia follows suit.

There's a slight chance that this could hinge on the deliberate ambiguity in the semantics of the question, vis-a-vis "fairness".

Voting "no" means you don't want the nondescript "fairness"?

 

[candycorn]

Its good to the that those on the right are finally waking up to the problem with gerrymandering. One has to wonder what has taken them so long. Of course they don’t give 2 shi*ts about democracy; they’re afraid of losing power. The blob has made such a disaster of his second term that its likely that no amount of gerrymandering could deliver 218 to them in about 6 months or so. Good. The Trump legislative agenda will be dead and we can start referring ot the lame man as a lame duck.

Anyway, I’ve railed against gerrymandering for years. I’ll post my remedy here, again, for anyone who wishes to read it. The idea of our republic is that the people choose the representatives. The idea of gerrymandering is that the representatives are choosing the people they want to represent. So this shoud be changed on a foundational basis.

1. Get rid of the idea tht a district has to be contiguous. This was based on the idea that House members would represent areas that have common. Here is the Pennsylvania 7th district:
   
   ridiculous doesn’t begin to explain the carveouts. Districts hve been gerrymandered so much that voters in states with 20+ reps live hundreds of mile apart. The Texas 15th goes from the border to San Antonio. So its’ a frace. Get rid of the rule that districts have to be contiguous.
2. So once that’s gone, what you do is use something that is apolitial to appoint voters to a district. I recomend ZIP codes. The only criteria for them is how many people live in a given place. When there are too many for mail to be delivered, they assign a new one.
3. Here is the tricky part. I recommend using income data from the previous census overlaid with ZIP codes. The Census Bureau already does this; they know the average income of citizens of 78701, 95455, and 31792 (Hi Tonya). I say income because it is the primary driver of the challenges faced by Americans. If you have a good nest egg and steady income, you don’t worry so much about prices; you worry more about safety, education, bills that fund colleges, preserve green spaces, etc... If you don’t have that nest egg and have less steady income, you worry more about jobs and prices. Income is a huge driver.
4. Anyway, use the Census data to divide a state’s ZIP codes into the number of districts as to where the groups have roughly the same number of ZIP codes. If you have 20 representaties, all of the state’s ZIP codes are put into 20 groups based on income--Groups A throught T if you will...only to give it a name. This will, by definition, deliver almost 20 groups of equal population. There will be exceptions to this rule but in almost all states, this will work because, again, the post office uses ZIP codes to determine workload; they don’t care about the politics of the person receiving the mail or package. If too many people are in on ZIP code, they roll out another one.
5. Okay so now you have a state’s population divided into 20 groups (if you have 20 reps...if you have 5 reps, they are divided into 5 groups--A through E, 30 reps--A-DD). On January 1 every 10th year (2030, 2040, 2050 etc...), have a computer assign ZIP codes to each distrct at random until they are all distributed. Alabama is the first state alphabetically so lets use them. When the computer starts issuing ZIP codes to each district, the Alabama 1st (for a nano-second) will have 7 ZIP code, one poor one, one slightly more wealthy, one slightly more wealthy than the previous one (Group F), and so on until it is assigned an A group ZIP code--one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the state). Then in the next nano-second, the Alabama 2nd is assigned one from each group. Then the 3rd... At the end of the program, you have 7 districts of compleely mixed income levels and in different parts of the state.
6. Now the fun begins. A represenative--if she wants to keep her job--has to actualy show their face in multiple regions of the state instead of holding these few events in the county seat. That means less time on MSNBC and FOX and more time in front of voters. Because the idea of a safe-district is pretty much gone in 35 states. A state like Wyoming or Vermont will likely remain a sea of red or blue but a state like California, Texas, Florida, Illinois will have good turnover both at first and downstream. It will probably hurt the traditionally blue states more than the traditionally red ones but I don’t really care as long as the people get a representative that they can pick out of a police line up (figuratively -- not literally).

 

[theHawk]

Some states, primarily blue states, have gone to nonpartisan redistricting commissions or passed amendments requiring redistricting to be done in a nonpartisan fashion.

it would be nice if the whole country could move this way, but since Republicans decided to go scorched earth, the Democratic Party responded in kind.

Yea right. The Democrats will never, ever, give up their power.

They know what’s best for all of us.