How gerrymandered is your district?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

This is the worst. It's also why I find little sympathy for Democrats complaining about the GA redistricting effort this year.

The Texas redistricting created several interesting ones. Maybe each of them by themselves looks more sane than GA-13, but overall, it's pretty bad.

[danwxman]

I guess a 7. The GOP tried to make PA 13 into a Republican district and, as Flyers will brag, it backfired. I better be thrown into PA 8 in 2010.

The GOP made a lot of mistakes....PA-17 backfired on them too.

[muon2]

This is the worst. It's also why I find little sympathy for Democrats complaining about the GA redistricting effort this year.

The Texas redistricting created several interesting ones. Maybe each of them by themselves looks more sane than GA-13, but overall, it's pretty bad.

On one point I have to salute the TX map. They did a remarkable job of keeping counties intact. Most anti-gerrymandering rules focus on keeping counties and other political subdivisions whole. TX actually followed those rules reasonable well, even while they favored the Republicans in their map.

[Nym90]

Not too bad for Michigan. The Republicans knew they had little chance of beating Stupak, so when they gerrymandered Michigan, they decided to give him some more Democratic parts of Barcia's old District, in order to help eliminate that one, in exchange for more Republican areas on the western side of the state that used to be included.

By the way, look at the scale of the map for my district. It's the second largest district in land area east of the Mississippi (only ME-2 is bigger).

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

On one point I have to salute the TX map. They did a remarkable job of keeping counties intact. Most anti-gerrymandering rules focus on keeping counties and other political subdivisions whole. TX actually followed those rules reasonable well, even while they favored the Republicans in their map.

Texas has 250+ counties.

You'd probably love the NYS Senate districts. They're gerrymandered, but follow county lines a lot. At least one district exactly follows county boundaries, which isn't hard to do, since the districts are allowed to vary in population by around 10%, which makes for easier gerrymandering.

[muon2]

On one point I have to salute the TX map. They did a remarkable job of keeping counties intact. Most anti-gerrymandering rules focus on keeping counties and other political subdivisions whole. TX actually followed those rules reasonable well, even while they favored the Republicans in their map.

Texas has 250+ counties.

You'd probably love the NYS Senate districts. They're gerrymandered, but follow county lines a lot. At least one district exactly follows county boundaries, which isn't hard to do, since the districts are allowed to vary in population by around 10%, which makes for easier gerrymandering.

I agree with you. The first step is to distinguish maps from states like GA and IL, that had no restrictions on avioding gerrymandering, from states like TX that have minimal rules regarding intact counties. I'd like to see further rules on compactness, but it is difficult to come up with a definition that works. In the meantime I'll start with rules that minimize breaking natural political boundaries.

[MaC]

MI 10, Dunno how to post the picture.  It's gerrymandered pretty well, but not obvious.  Since in 2000 Michigan had Republicans in the state house, state senate and governor, the Republicans had a good part in shaping the district.  The once smaller district was enlargened toward capturing the thumb area to get the conservative farmer vote.  And it worked, Candice Miller(R) won over Carl Marlinga(D)(who was later found to be a crook).  She got re-elected in 2002 by about two thirds of the vote and there's no sign of this seat changing.

[nini2287]

[MaC]

thanks, bud.

[jimrtex]

2.  Covers much of the same area as it has since the federal courts threw out the Democrat's illegal 1960s era gerrymander.  This is the plan the
legislature enacted in 2003.



This is the version that the federal district court imposed in 2001.



This is the version used from 1996-2000 after the the US Supreme Court
declared the Frost plan illegal.



This is the illegal Frost version (including a zoomed area adjacent.

[jimrtex]

Compared to?

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Compared to?

[jimrtex]

What are some of the MOST gerrymandered districts in the country?

AZ-02 is interesting (connects Phoenix suburbs to Las Vegas outskirts not to mention the 'string' that holds it to a Navajo tribe)

A curiousity is that it was drawn by an independent commission.   The
plan was challenged as a violation of Arizona law.  The state court
found that it violated Arizona law, but that it was legal because the
commission had drawn the plan to comply with federal law.  The
commission was unable to get state lawyers to defend its plan, and
ended up soliciting private funds.

I think the string goes through the Grand Canyon, and connects to
the Hopi[/b] reservation to separate it from the Navajo reservation.

[Joe Republic]

Now THAT is a work of art.

[ian]

One.  I don't think it is gerrymandered at all.  Complete counties all in it.

[Joe Republic]

It's a shame we don't have any forum members from Vermont, Delaware, the Dakotas, Wyoming and Alaska.  I'd like to see their views on this subject.

[Keystone Phil]

One.  I don't think it is gerrymandered at all.  Complete counties all in it.

Oh no. I hope opebo doesn't see that. The district is in the shape of a cross which is just another sign that "religious facists" are turning America into a theocracy. 

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

One.  I don't think it is gerrymandered at all.  Complete counties all in it.

They don't seem to have the same population. Most states have exactly the same (to within a person) population in each district. Arkansas clearly doesn't.

[Kevinstat]

I'll give it a 3, because of the mildly squigilly boundary line within and on the edges of Kennebec County.  71% of the district's population lives in York and Cumberland counties.  The remainder of the district is divided between the portion of Kennebec County in "central Maine" (even though the geographic center of the state is well north of the county) in the district (with 12% of the district's population) and the so-called Midcoast (Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Knox and Waldo counties, with the latter being in District 2) with 17% of the dstrict's population.  It's a pretty strongly Democratic district (Kerry carried it 55% to 43% last November and Democrat Tom Allen has won reelection with 59.7% of the vote or more in each of his four reelection runs), but the district could be competitive in an open seat race with a good Republican candidate, with at least Lincoln County likely to go Republican.

[WMS]

Looks like a 3, but it's really a 5. This map: slices the upper NW Albuquerque area of Paradise Hills in two diagonally; goes into contortions not to include Republican-leaning Rio Rancho to the north; makes certain not to include the To'hajilee/Canoncito or Isleta Indian Reservations (in the west and south of Bernalillo County); swings way the hell around in the East Mountain Area (eastern part of Bernalillo County) before driving south and southwest through Torrance County into Valencia County; carefully includes certain areas of Sandoval and Santa Fe County (Republican-leaning Placitas, Democratic Bernalillo and Democratic Sandia Pueblo), splitting another municipality (the Town of Edgewood) in the process; includes all of rural Torrance County for no good reason; and then only includes half of lightly-Democratic Valencia County.

The 2001-2 plan was actually the result of a court case, in which the Reps presented this plan (I'll get to the Dems in a second) and won. This plan was a slight modification of the bipartisan gerrymander of 1991-2. In any event, I can and have done a much better job redistricting the state on my own.

The Dems lost because they were trying to gerrymander Heather Wilson out of office and (sorry, this is only the bill text - the map has been removed) basically turned the state into a giant pinwheel, with all three congressional districts grabbing big chunks out of Bernalillo County and Albuquerque, with NM-1 taking NE and SE Albuquerque and eastern BernCo and joining it to the Northeastern (in part),  Eastern and Southeastern NM (ultra-Republican, but pairing two incumbents), NM-2 taking Central, Southern and Southwestern Albuquerque and the entire BernCo Valley and joining it to, err, Central, Southern (there are some serious gerrymanders along the southern tier of counties) and Southwestern NM (highly Democratic and a new open district for the Dems to gain a seat), and NM-3 taking the Albuquerque West Side and joining it to Northeastern (in part), Northern, Northwestern, and Western NM (ultra-Democratic w/incumbent).

[muon2]

One.  I don't think it is gerrymandered at all.  Complete counties all in it.

They don't seem to have the same population. Most states have exactly the same (to within a person) population in each district. Arkansas clearly doesn't.

They are not required to be exact to the person if there are other state interests involved. Maintaining county integrity can be such a factor, if the population dispersion has been minimized, and is less than a percent.

[jimrtex]

One.  I don't think it is gerrymandered at all.  Complete counties all in it.

They don't seem to have the same population. Most states have exactly the same (to within a person) population in each district. Arkansas clearly doesn't.

They are not required to be exact to the person if there are other state interests involved. Maintaining county integrity can be such a factor, if the population dispersion has been minimized, and is less than a percent.

The Arkansas legislature passed two plans, one that didn't split counties and one that did.  The one that splits counties was basically the same plan, but it shifted a few 1000 people around to equally balance population.

If someone takes a plan to court, what they are really angling for is for the court to reject the legislature's plan and impose their own.   They might submit a plan that split 15 counties and looked like the Georginois legislature had drawn it, but demonstrates that equal population districts can be drawn.  The state is left defending the legislature's plan without admitting that a better plan can be drawn.  In Arkansas's case, they can simply fall back on the split-county plan, which both satisfies legislative intent and precisely equal population.  As a result, no one challenges the plan.

The 2000s plan is a fairly minor modification of the 1990s plan.  The central district 2 stayed the same and is only a bit under 2000 under an ideal population.  The southern district 4 gained 3 counties from the northwestern district 3, and the eastern district 1 gained 1 county from northwestern district 3. 

[Sam Spade]

JimrTex, thank you for posting that classic Frost map here:



When I used to live in Texas, I lived in one of those little yellow areas in between the purple, just east of Downtown Houston in a highly Hispanic area.

[Jake]

That is sickening.  What did they do, march block by block?

[Sam Spade]

That is sickening.  What did they do, march block by block?

Probably.  Lack of zoning or any city planning in Houston creates areas that are naturally very disjunct from each other in population, income, etc. 

Things can change on a dime, especially in West Houston (but in east Houston also)

[Jake]

Hmm, that's the problem with gerrymandering. If you do it, at least try to hide it. Don't blatantly propose disguting stuff like that. I mean, it makes GA-13 look contiguous.