2020 is the Election Democrats Should Really Be Focusing On.....

[DS0816]

For those who want to seriously crunch numbers (or who can point to a source who already has) Is it possible to get every state to draw congressional districts assuring that the Partisan Voting Index is no more than 10 percentage points (one party or the other)?

[DS0816]

For those who want to seriously crunch numbers (or who can point to a source who already has) Is it possible to get every state to draw congressional districts assuring that the Partisan Voting Index is no more than 10 percentage points (one party or the other)?

I believe PVI is calculated relative to the vote shares in presidential elections. Therefore, it would be impossible to do so in any state with PVI > 10 in either direction. My knowledge of PVI is rather hazy, so if anyone wants to correct me, please do.

Also, I question why this would be a good aim. Making all districts competitive would itself be a sort of gerrymandering, since you'd have to throw out any notion of community of interest in order to make ultra-Democratic cities have competitive districts.

Your answer, from the first paragraph, agrees with what I've been thinking. But, from the second paragraph, I disagree because it should be encouraged to move the United States people off the rigged system of having mostly uncompetitive U.S. House races.

[DS0816]

How about a majority Democrat-appointed SCOTUS overturning gerrymandering in 2018-2020?

I doubt Scalia or Kennedy will retire before 2020.

Wikipedia says they're both 78 currently while Ginsburg is 81 and Breyer is 76. Is there cumulative data on the ages when Justices step down? Those four look like prime retirement candidates in the next six years.

I don't know.

The seven justices prior to President Barack Obama are an average age of 71.