What would you do if you had to make 10 changes to state borders?

[Dr. MB]

They can be as big or small as you'd like. Try not to be super obviously political, think more in terms of map aesthetics and proportionality. Making DC/Puerto Rico/any other territory or part of a foreign country into a state doesn't count.

I think I would

1. Give the upper peninsula of Michigan to Wisconsin
2. Split New York into two, with Westchester and Rockland counties, Long Island, and NYC in one state and upstate NY in the other
3. Split California into two along the north-south county line
4. Give Delaware all of eastern Maryland and the weird offshoot of Virginia
5. Give all the minor outlying islands in the Pacific to Hawai'i
6. Merge North and South Dakota
7. Merge Virginia and West Virginia
8. Give the Kentucky Bend to Tennessee
9. Give Carter Lake, Iowa to Nebraska
10. actually idk

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

10 changes which are entirely for aesthetic reasons:

1) Merge North Dakota and South Dakota
2) Also add Nebraska to the merged state
3) Also add Kansas to the merged state
4) Also add Oklahoma to the merged state
5) Also add Wyoming to the merged state
6) Also add Montana to the merged state
7) Also add Idaho to the merged state
Also add Utah to the merged state
9) Also add Arkansas to the merged state
10) Also add Iowa to the merged state (or you could do Tennessee instead)

This would leave us with one big beautiful new state, which would would call the state of "Plains"

According to here (https://kevinhayeswilson.com/redraw/), it would have:

23,498,189 population
33 electoral votes
4,062,742 Biden votes (37.9%)
6,459,909 Trump votes (60.2%)
204,717 Libertarian votes

Plains would be the 3rd largest state among the 40 states, about 2 million people larger than Florida, 6 million less than Texas, and 59% as populous as California. By the next census it might drop to the 4th most populous state depending on how much Florida grows.

[Atlas Force]

https://xkcd.com/1902/



Alt text: A schism between the pro-panhandle and anti-panhandle factions eventually led to war, but both sides spent too much time working on their flag designs to actually do much fighting.

[muon2]

I don't have a list of 10 changes, but this thread reminds me that I should do my 10 year review and update of the redrawn states using the 2020 census. My exercise started in 2004 starting with the broad outlines of the Nine Nations of North America. The Nations in the US were split into states based on cultural factors, with the requirement that no state be more than twice or less than half the average population. I did an update in 2013 to reflect the population changes and use Urban County Clusters to better define states.

[Progressive Pessimist]

1. Merge the Dakotas and then give them parts of rural eastern Iowa and Minnesota.
2. Give the Florida panhandle to Alabama.
3. Give the western North Carolina tail thing to Tennessee.
4. Oklahoma takes in much more of northern and western Texas.
5. Parts of western Oregon go to Idaho.
6. Everything in Pennsyvania south of Allegheny, Centre, Dauphin, and Cumberland stretching east up to Chester goes to West Virginia, Kentucky, and/or Maryland.
7. Southeastern Virginia up to Charlottesville and Lynchburg goes to Kentucky.
8. Combine Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.
9. Stretch a portion of Utah containing Park and Salt Lake City into Colorado then give Utah parts of rural northeastern Nevada and western Arizona.
10. Northern and eastern Georgia, up to the Atlanta area, becomes part of Alabama or Tennessee.

If it's not too obvious; essentially I am making Republican vote sinks, shoring up some swing states for Democrats, and even sparing a few Democratic parts of states from their rural safe R counterparts.

[wnwnwn]

1 Wisconsin gets Michigan Upper Península
2 Louisiana gets Missisipi and Alabama shore counties (Mobile back home)
3 Give the West Virginia's three eatsern counties to Maryland
4 Give Delawere the rest of the Delawere peninsula
5 Give some appalachian Ohio counties to West Virginia (the ones near WV's noethern panhandle)
6 Give Texas Panhandle to Oklahoma
7 Give southern Massachusetts to Rhode Island
8 Give Missouri's bootheel to Arkansas
9 Give Staten Island to New Jersey (and make it a city)
10 Give Utah's Navajo Reserve area to Arixona and Colorado's Navajo Reserve area to New Mexico.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Move the Tennessee-Georgia border to the 35th parallel as it was originally intended, rather than the actual border which is too far south due to a surveyor's error.

[Spectator]

https://xkcd.com/1902/



Alt text: A schism between the pro-panhandle and anti-panhandle factions eventually led to war, but both sides spent too much time working on their flag designs to actually do much fighting.

Super long panhandle in Oklahoma had me rolling lol

[GeorgiaModerate]

Two of the obvious changes people have already listed are moving the Florida Panhandle to Alabama and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Wisconsin.  I recall reading somewhere that if those two changes actually were in place, Hillary Clinton would have won Florida and Michigan, giving her the win in 2016.

[rhg2052]

Two of the obvious changes people have already listed are moving the Florida Panhandle to Alabama and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Wisconsin.  I recall reading somewhere that if those two changes actually were in place, Hillary Clinton would have won Florida and Michigan, giving her the win in 2016.

Just put it into this "redraw the states" app - https://kevinhayeswilson.com/redraw/ - and you are correct, Clinton wins Florida by about 100,000 and Michigan by 16,000

[Agonized-Statism]

In general, I think subdivisions should reflect more current regional economies and work in an ecological foundation, but a few nitpicks:

1. A lot of the Plains states don't need to exist (looking at you, North Dakota and Wyoming) and are artifacts of nineteenth century schemes to maximize Republican influence in the federal government; states with agricultural economies dependent on the Ogallala Aquifer should be merged, or at least have some superseding regional organization to better manage it.
2. I'm probably biased because I really hate the Bay Area, but the Shasta Cascade and Emerald Triangle regions should politically link up with a Cascadian subdivision and Southern California should go it alone.
3. To better break the power of the landed elite, the Texas Triangle should jettison West Texas and the Panhandle and connect with the eastern Gulf Coast more.
4. West Virginia, or some equivalent Appalachian subdivision, should probably have more of Maryland and Virginia; not because of temporary political differences, but because long-standing differences between Coastal and Western Virginia have increased and will only continue to increase. Keeping with the bioregionalist idea, a common Appalachian identity should be emphasized as a first step to improving the lives of people in the region.
5. North Florida and the Deep South should link up somehow.
6. Doesn't count but whatever, Douglass Commonwealth. I used to think retrocession made sense but for a lot of good reasons, no one involved wants it.

That's all I got.

[Pericles]

You guys haven't seen Redraw the States?

[BigSkyBob]

Illinois is a failing state destined to depopulation and fiscal collapse [or it could alter its Constitution and pay retirees a reasonable pension.] The Central States Teamsters Union pension plan is the perfect model for the coming collapse of Illinois. Pensions costs bankrupted one trucking company after another shifting the burden of paying the pensions of bankrupted companies' employees upon the unionized firms still solvent. The smart unionized firms bought themselves out of the pension fund before it bankrupted them. It bankrupted the rest. Replace trucking companies with Illinois taxpayers, and, teamster pensions with government pensions, the basic mechanics of the coming collapse are in places. Corporation in Illinois will figure out they will be forced to pony up for unsustainable pensions or choose to leave. Those that remain will be on the hook for more taxes, until they leave. Finally, middle-class homeowners will be taxed/fleeced until they flee. Illinois real estate is heading for zero. Those who buy are betting a greater fool will buy them out before the collapse.

Justice should demand that those who started the collapse should suffer it, while those who didn't shouldn't. Downstart should be split from Chicagoland, with Downstated divided between Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, and, perhaps Kentucky. Those states will be able to revalue the pensions of those absorded into their states to reasonable amounts.

[Nyvin]

Actually Long Island being it's own state (with NYC included) isn't a bad idea.  It'd probably help upstate NY a lot.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

A modest proposal