United States Executive Council

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

What if the US had a New Hampshire-style executive council to temper the power of the President, with Electoral Votes serving as the units from which districts were drawn? Deviation +/-10%, or more if absolutely required to keep states whole.
Under this arrangement we could have a total of 3, 5, 7 or even 9 districts. How would district magnitude affect the districts and regional representation? Etc.

[Nyvin]

Was probably never made to avoid encouraging secession movements.   Probably the main reason it'll never be adopted today.

[EastAnglianLefty]

If you were thinking of how the districts might be drawn, might be worth looking at the boundaries of the various judicial circuits? Obviously they're pretty far away from population equality, though.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Specifically, you could probably get something approaching a 10% deviation by splitting the 9th Circuit in half; keeping the 4th, 5th, 6th and 11th Circuits as they are; splitting the 8th Circuit between the 7th and 10th; and making two districts out of 1st, 2nd and 3rd circuits.

This would still likely require splitting California and New York, though. Eyeballing it, it might be plausible to do the former with one district for Arizona, Nevada and southern California and the other for northern California and the rest of the west. For the latter, the best split would probably be NYC, CT and NJ on the one hand, and New England, PA, DE and Upstate on the other hand?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Specifically, you could probably get something approaching a 10% deviation by splitting the 9th Circuit in half; keeping the 4th, 5th, 6th and 11th Circuits as they are; splitting the 8th Circuit between the 7th and 10th; and making two districts out of 1st, 2nd and 3rd circuits.

This would still likely require splitting California and New York, though. Eyeballing it, it might be plausible to do the former with one district for Arizona, Nevada and southern California and the other for northern California and the rest of the west. For the latter, the best split would probably be NYC, CT and NJ on the one hand, and New England, PA, DE and Upstate on the other hand?

Is this being done under a 7 district arrangement or a 9 district one? Or even 11?
All the states in the 9th together have 105 EVs.

[Skill and Chance]

Was probably never made to avoid encouraging secession movements.   Probably the main reason it'll never be adopted today.

This.

Any version of an executive council adopted at the Founding would have been explicitly skewed toward Southern slave power.  It's a good thing that didn't happen.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Here are EV totals for all the circuits:
1st: 23
2nd: 39
3rd: 37
4th: 55
5th: 52
6th: 53
7th: 41
8th: 43
9th: 105
10th: 36
11th: 54

[Storr]

Here are EV totals for all the circuits:
1st: 23
2nd: 39
3rd: 37
4th: 55
5th: 52
6th: 53
7th: 41
8th: 43
9th: 105
10th: 36
11th: 54

Just an idea that would make a more "reasonable" 9th Circuit if it was needed to create a fair Executive Council would be:

1. Moving Arizona to the 10th, bringing it to 47 EV

2. Creating a Northwest 12th Circuit, with Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Nevada (and maybe Hawaii?) with 35 EV, 38 if you include Hawaii.

3. Resulting in a new 9th Circuit with only California and 55 EV.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Specifically, you could probably get something approaching a 10% deviation by splitting the 9th Circuit in half; keeping the 4th, 5th, 6th and 11th Circuits as they are; splitting the 8th Circuit between the 7th and 10th; and making two districts out of 1st, 2nd and 3rd circuits.

This would still likely require splitting California and New York, though. Eyeballing it, it might be plausible to do the former with one district for Arizona, Nevada and southern California and the other for northern California and the rest of the west. For the latter, the best split would probably be NYC, CT and NJ on the one hand, and New England, PA, DE and Upstate on the other hand?

Is this being done under a 7 district arrangement or a 9 district one? Or even 11?
All the states in the 9th together have 105 EVs.

10 districts, because it just so happens there are a bunch of circuit courts covering approximately 10% of the US population and it made working out the 10% deviation easy. I'm aware an even number would be easier for a Executive Council structure, so maybe cut it down to 5?

Which I guess would mean the following arrangement:

1st: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Circuits
2nd: 4th and 6th Circuits
3rd: 5th and 11th Circuits
4th: 7th, 8th and 10th Circuits
5th: 9th Circuit

[Sol]

IMO the US actually divides pretty cleanly into 5 regions, with a little obvious uncertainty at the margins (MO, WV, South Florida, West Texas/Oklahoma, etc.):

Unfortunately these aren't equally populated, but they should be the place to start for any decent map IMO.

[Former President tack50]

I could post here the Fantasyland region maps for 3 and 5 regions, but I won't because I already posted them last time a topic like this was discussed

Anyways since you seem to want regions with the same number of electoral college votes here are some quick maps:

3 districts



5 districts



7 districts