Gerrymandering Explained
One of the reasons the United States Congress is less representative of the citizenry than it should be – and remains stubbornly stuck that way – is that the boundaries of congressional districts are usually drawn by the legislatures of each state. Naturally, whichever party is in the majority tends to draw the lines so as to benefit themselves.
This is called “gerrymandering”, after Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, who in 1812 signed a bill redistricting his state to benefit his party. One of the districts in the Boston area was said to resemble the shape of a salamander, thus the term “gerrymander.”
The graphic below (from the Washington Post) illustrates in a very simple way how gerrymandering can result in election outcomes that distort or even completely invert the wishes of the people.
See the full article by Christopher Ingraham at the Washington Post
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a bipartisan panel the state of Arizona created to draw that state’s district boundaries. This opens the door for other states to follow Arizona’s lead. If they do, perhaps Congress will become more like what it’s supposed to be: a legislative body representing the people.
There is a fourth way to divide it up. One that is simple and easy to follow.
Districts should just be based on a number of already configured zip code zones, however many are needed per representative, and should NEVER be changed from this. Some number of zip code zones can be figured to represent any district for a representative.
People move from time to time, it’s part of life. So over time what party is ‘in power’ in a particular zip code can, and likely will, change. If the current representative is unable to properly represent the people in the zip codes he represents, he either starts to represent them fully or he gets changed out in the next election for one who does. Political positions were NEVER meant to be a permanent job.
Change the politician to represent the actual data (zip code zone data where people they are supposed to represent live) and don’t change the data (area data is drawn from) to fit the politician.
Just Think About It. :)