Colorado: another nail in the elctral collg coffin

[IowaLibert]

Even if Colorado approves it, they'll eventually scrap it when no one else does it... and no one else'll do it.

There hasn't exactly been a rush to the Maine/Nebraska congressional district method, but they haven't changed back.

[IowaLibert]

I also do not support any sort of CD-based system.  The last thing we need is to insert presidential politics into redistricting.  Reform the district drawing process and I would reconsider.

This is an excellent point. Fix gerrymandering first.

Posted from Iowa, where we have fixed gerrymandering.

[IowaLibert]

This is an excellent point. Fix gerrymandering first.

Posted from Iowa, where we have fixed gerrymandering.

How has Iowa fixed gerrymandering?

By turning it over to a non-partisan legislative services bureau which has fairly strict standards to which it must adhere, one of which is ignoring such matters as voter registration and residence of incumbents. Furthermore, the legislature can only vote up or down the lines submitted to them.  Well, at least the first two times, if it goes to a third plan then they have that option.  But there would be hell to pay with the voters if they rejected the independently drawn boundaries - Iowans really like this process.

I can find a link to an official description of the process, if you're interested. (but it will have to be tomorrow....)

[IowaLibert]

That said, if EV's are split by a state I would prefer the ME/NE system since it mirrors the weight of all states and districts in congress. I think there would be less chance of FL-type problems, since the most a recount could affect is one vote for a CD or 2 for the state.

In my view, you've identified one of the real positives that the ME/NE method produces - small impact of tightly contested EVs.

Unfortunately, the ME/NE method is fatally (in my view) flawed because of the horrorific problem of Congressional district gerrymandering.  I would definitely NOT add to the importance of congressional district lines so long as they're drawn in such a blatantly partisan fashion.

[IowaLibert]

The key to Iowa's districting is that each CD is made up of a whole number of counties, and a computer algorithm sorts through thousands of combinations to produce the combination that minimizes the population differences.

IA can justfy such a course unit as a county for two reasons. One is that state law uses county-based CDs in drawing its state legislative districts. This provides adequate justification to keep counties intact despite not making them exactly equal in population. The second reason is that no county in IA is larger in population than a CD. Polk Co. is the largest at 374,601, much less than the average CD size. This means IA does not need any exceptions to its procedure.

The IA method cannot directly translate to any state that has one or more counties of population in excess of a CD, or a significant cluster of Polk-sized counties next to each other. Then the population differences would be too great to survive a court challenge.

This leaves states using a smaller unit, such as towns or townships. As long as the size of the smaller units doesn't exceed a CD, this could work like IA. Most of the larger states would still fail. For instance, Chicago by itself is over 3 million people so one is forced to carve it into smaller units. Once the rule is broken, one can argue that it should be broken in other places in the same state so as to make population more equal.

The same process is successfully used for state legislative districts many of which are smaller than an indivdual county or city.  Utilization of the county lines is not crucial, although yes, that does work nicely here for CDs.

[IowaLibert]

I can see it's time to post a link to the exact process used in Iowa.

http://www.legis.state.ia.us/Central/LSB/Guides/redist.htm

[IowaLibert]

I like the idea of putting electoral votes along congressional district lines if not for the problem of gerrymandering.  [snip]  Since gerrymandering is incredibly difficult to fix, I'd say a nationwide PR systemw ould be okay.

In my humble opinion - No.

Let's not simply accept gerrymandering and consequently pursue nationwide PR EVs (which must eventually lead to an election decided by the House). Gerrymandering needs to be fixed. Period.  Iowa's done it.  End legislators choosing voters; let voters choose legislators.