How gerrymandered is your district?

[Cashcow]

[Jake]

LOL, Lousiana. Gotta love it.

[??????????]

What advantage does District 4 give? Helps the black vote I suppose?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What advantage does District 4 give? Helps the black vote I suppose?

It was Louisiana's first crack at a racial gerrymander (map was drawn in the early '90's and overturned by a court pretty soon afterwards).

[jimrtex]

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

In the Dallas area, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson claimed that all the odd little fingers were so that her friends could live in her district and vote for her.

When the boundaries were first used in 1992, the Democrat primary in the purple district was extremely close, and there were allegations of cross-over voting.  Voters were called into court and required to testify who they voted for.  After the trial had been going on for a while, somebody discovered that several precincts had voted in the wrong districts.  Some who shouldn't have voted in the district had, and others who should have voted in the precinct hadn't.  The county election officials hadn't recognized this and neither had the candidates.  So the court ordered a new election.

With the congressional plan and a similar state senate plan, the number of precints in Harris County roughly doubled (precincts can not cross congressional district, state senate or state house, state board of education, county commission, or justice of the piece district boundaries).  In the ensuing litigation one of the claims against the senate districts was that it created many extremely small precincts where a voter's right to secrecy was violated because there were only a handful or less voters in the precinct.

[jimrtex]

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.

I lived near the edge of a red area, in a precinct that was split between 3 congressional districts.  I hadn't realized it until I pulled up at the polling place (elections for all 3 precincts/districts were held at the same location) and saw all the campaign signs for Craig Washington, Ben Reyes, and Bill Archer. 

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I think they normally split precincts that are in different districts. But that doesn't prevent them from having the same voting place. And sometimes people vote in the wrong precinct, that seemed to cost Kerry a lot of votes in Cleveland.

[Lt. Gov. Immy]

I'll give it a 3.  The city of Boise is split in half for some reason.  I think if somehow a district was gerrymandered to include all of Boise, the moderate Northern panhandle, and liberal Sun Valley, it would be slightly competative.

[muon2]

I'll give it a 3.  The city of Boise is split in half for some reason.  I think if somehow a district was gerrymandered to include all of Boise, the moderate Northern panhandle, and liberal Sun Valley, it would be slightly competative.

Doesn't ID use a commission to draw its maps?

[Lt. Gov. Immy]

I'll give it a 3.  The city of Boise is split in half for some reason.  I think if somehow a district was gerrymandered to include all of Boise, the moderate Northern panhandle, and liberal Sun Valley, it would be slightly competative.

Doesn't ID use a commission to draw its maps?

Yeah, as far as I know it was a three Democrat, three Republican panel that drew that map.  One of the Reps caved for this map, so I guess it's the best we Dems could get.

[jimrtex]

Doesn't ID use a commission to draw its maps?

Montana does.

[jimrtex]

I think they normally split precincts that are in different districts. But that doesn't prevent them from having the same voting place. And sometimes people vote in the wrong precinct, that seemed to cost Kerry a lot of votes in Cleveland.

In Texas, precincts can not span districts.  In the1990's Frostrocity hundreds of precincts were sliced by district boundaries, roughly doubling the number in Harris County, resulting in $millions in extra election expenses.  If possible, the polling place is within the precinct boundaries.

[ian]

Was this map created during Blanco's governorship or before?

[Jake]

1992 I believe

[Sam Spade]

1992 I believe

During the governorship of my favorite Southern crook governor, Edwin Edwards. 

[ian]

1992 I believe

During the governorship of my favorite Southern crook governor, Edwin Edwards. 

Think when Blanco is kicked out, the Repub will change it up?

[No more McShame]

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)

That's my district.  That "string" keeps AZ-1 from being Democratic while not risking AZ-2.  Both Franks (R-2) and Renzi (R-1) won by about 20% in the last election.

[No more McShame]

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.

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I believe you're right Jim.  Guess that proves that independent commissions aren't always so "independent."  And that is the Hopi reservation that is at the end of the string in Dist. 2.  Interesting about the court cases as I didn't know that as I didn't move here till 2003.

[WMS]

I think they normally split precincts that are in different districts. But that doesn't prevent them from having the same voting place. And sometimes people vote in the wrong precinct, that seemed to cost Kerry a lot of votes in Cleveland.

In Texas, precincts can not span districts.  In the1990's Frostrocity hundreds of precincts were sliced by district boundaries, roughly doubling the number in Harris County, resulting in $millions in extra election expenses.

They split precincts? Bad, bad, Texas Democrats...

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You would not believe how much trouble that provision causes in Bernalillo County...especially paired with a 'no more than four precincts per polling place' restriction...it's like a giant puzzle in which the pieces rotate every time you do something...

[jimrtex]

I believe you're right Jim.  Guess that proves that independent commissions aren't always so "independent."  And that is the Hopi reservation that is at the end of the string in Dist. 2.  Interesting about the court cases as I didn't know that as I didn't move here till 2003.

This is a link to recent redistricting litigation across the country.

The commission was created by an initiative in 2000.  It appears that it gave the commission an impossible task of trying to take into account communities of interest and create competitive districts.

[jimrtex]

In Texas, precincts can not span districts.  In the1990's Frostrocity hundreds of precincts were sliced by district boundaries, roughly doubling the number in Harris County, resulting in $millions in extra election expenses.

They split precincts? Bad, bad, Texas Democrats...

One of the challenges to the state senate plan was that the combination of district lines had created numerous precincts with a handful of voters, such that you could figure out how individuals had voted.

In one case, a small town that had been a single election district, was split into 10 precincts as the CD boundaries criss-crossed the area.  The reason for doing so was to include an apartment complex in one of the CDs which had been torn down between the time of the census and the election.

In a Democrat primary held under the new lines, in one CD several precincts were left out (they voted with other CDs) and others were erroneously included.  The election was extremely close and ended up in court where voters were required to reveal who they had voted for (one 80-year-old voter said, "I'm going to stay right here till they lock me up.  I've worked all my life, and I don't have many days left.").

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You would not believe how much trouble that provision causes in Bernalillo County...especially paired with a 'no more than four precincts per polling place' restriction...it's like a giant puzzle in which the pieces rotate every time you do something...
[/quote]
Under the Democrat plans, it was difficult to find a polling place since the commercial areas were no longer in the precinct.

[WMS]

In Texas, precincts can not span districts.  In the1990's Frostrocity hundreds of precincts were sliced by district boundaries, roughly doubling the number in Harris County, resulting in $millions in extra election expenses.

They split precincts? Bad, bad, Texas Democrats...

One of the challenges to the state senate plan was that the combination of district lines had created numerous precincts with a handful of voters, such that you could figure out how individuals had voted.

In one case, a small town that had been a single election district, was split into 10 precincts as the CD boundaries criss-crossed the area.  The reason for doing so was to include an apartment complex in one of the CDs which had been torn down between the time of the census and the election.

In a Democrat primary held under the new lines, in one CD several precincts were left out (they voted with other CDs) and others were erroneously included.  The election was extremely close and ended up in court where voters were required to reveal who they had voted for (one 80-year-old voter said, "I'm going to stay right here till they lock me up.  I've worked all my life, and I don't have many days left.").

That is atrocious! I don't think Texas Dems have much ground to criticize the Reps' redistricting due to stuff like this...not that I'm happy with what DeLay did either, but still...

You must be logged in to read this quote.

You would not believe how much trouble that provision causes in Bernalillo County...especially paired with a 'no more than four precincts per polling place' restriction...it's like a giant puzzle in which the pieces rotate every time you do something...
[/quote]
Under the Democrat plans, it was difficult to find a polling place since the commercial areas were no longer in the precinct.
[/quote]
It's hard to find polling places, period. If it weren't for the state law in NM forcing public schools to be used as polling places, the entire thing would collapse in BernCo.

[muon2]

In Texas, precincts can not span districts.  In the1990's Frostrocity hundreds of precincts were sliced by district boundaries, roughly doubling the number in Harris County, resulting in $millions in extra election expenses.

They split precincts? Bad, bad, Texas Democrats...

One of the challenges to the state senate plan was that the combination of district lines had created numerous precincts with a handful of voters, such that you could figure out how individuals had voted.

In one case, a small town that had been a single election district, was split into 10 precincts as the CD boundaries criss-crossed the area.  The reason for doing so was to include an apartment complex in one of the CDs which had been torn down between the time of the census and the election.

In a Democrat primary held under the new lines, in one CD several precincts were left out (they voted with other CDs) and others were erroneously included.  The election was extremely close and ended up in court where voters were required to reveal who they had voted for (one 80-year-old voter said, "I'm going to stay right here till they lock me up.  I've worked all my life, and I don't have many days left.").

That is atrocious! I don't think Texas Dems have much ground to criticize the Reps' redistricting due to stuff like this...not that I'm happy with what DeLay did either, but still...

It goes back to the fundamental statistical problem with compact districts and a party that is highly concentrated in urban areas. To achieve an effective use of political gerrymandering, Democrats have to create more contorted districts splitting communities of interest. Its not that they are desirous of more atrocious districts, it's just the geographic arrangement of their likely voters.

[12th Doctor]

Not too bad.  Probably a 2.




At least its not as stupid as OH-6.

Acctually, I think OH-6 makes sense.  I mean, if you are going to go by geography and socio-economics, OH-6 makes a lot more sense than most other districts.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The seriously dodgy part of OH-6 is that little blip on the border with OH-18. Guess who lives inside that little blip? Congressman Ney...
Drawing an Ohio Valley district isn't really a bad idea, but they weren't even consistant...