Is it time to take redistricting out of the politicians hands?

[MooseNSquirrel]

The people of PA elected a Republican legislature in 2010.
Such is the results of the choices of the citizens.

If Democrats had control of the legislature; they may have carved up more of the Philly area to create a different map to add a safe Dem district or two.

Blame the voters for allowing such.

Or convince the voters that they need to be voting Democrat in 2020 to make things "fairer"

So what you are saying is yes you are correct but too bad, game the system when you can, but dont complain about how bad the sytem is?

 

[Darwin333]

Here in California we got to see the affects of our independently drawn district maps, maps drawn outside of the powers of politicians. Unlike other redistricting commissions California is unique in that its members are are not appointed by party leaders, but instead of randomly chosen from a group of highly qualified citizens. Also unlike other commissions were independents were not given strong voices, in California their votes are the most important.

We can see the results are very good, the districts are more competitive, and are now better represent their areas. With the new lines Democrats are looking at gaining 4 house seats, plus 2/3 control in the California legislature. More states should look to the California model.

So basically you like it not because it was fair or right but because it netted the results you desired.

 

[abj13]

District 12 was also the only competitive district in the entire state and went

52-48 Republican

And is surrounded by

3: 55-41 Republican
4: 60-34 Republican
9: 62-38 Republican
18: 64-36 Republican

Seems that District 12 was gerrymandered to give the Democrats a fighting chance.

http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/results/state/PA/house

You're an idiot. John Murtha held that seat for years. Then it was further gerrymandered by the Republican led state legislature in 2010 further creating the jumbled retarded lines of that seat, and finally shifting the seat Republican this year.

If you don't know anything about politics of SW PA, then go be a hack somewhere else instead of posting these idiotic posts.

I especially love how you posted the results of district 18, another horrible example of retardedness:

 

[Jeff7]

I'd also love to see gerrymandering made illegal. It's just another way of quietly corrupting the system.
Districts: Go by a grid, based on lines of latitude and longitude.
Any politician who then tries to redefine "latitude" and "longitude" will be pushed into my lobbyist reform proposal:

Both sides hate gerrymandering -- when it is done by the other side.

Getting rid of this will be about as easy as getting rid of pork projects.

Or lobbyist reform.

Solution for the lobbyist problem: A trench surrounding the Capitol building, filled with black mambas. It should also be kept warm, so they're highly active.
Bonus: No penalty for nudging lobbyists over the edge and into the trench, should they wander too close.

 

[GregGreen]

There was a Proposition on the ballot in OH to form non-partisan committees charged with re-districting. It wasn't perfect and the Republican Super PACs spent a metric crapton of money to defeat it so it went down 2:1.

In this day and age of computers, it is bullshit that the maps are drawn by humans. It should all be done by computer algorithm that equally distributes representatives amongst the population. It wouldn't take any regard to demographics or per capita income and it would actually work.

 

[GregGreen]

PS: http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/8651/h7ichhp.png

This is my old district when I lived in Raleigh. It looks like a bird. Very organic.

 

[DCal430]

There was a Proposition on the ballot in OH to form non-partisan committees charged with re-districting. It wasn't perfect and the Republican Super PACs spent a metric crapton of money to defeat it so it went down 2:1.

In this day and age of computers, it is bullshit that the maps are drawn by humans. It should all be done by computer algorithm that equally distributes representatives amongst the population. It wouldn't take any regard to demographics or per capita income and it would actually work.

Looking at issue 2, it is sad that it was defeated. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than what Ohio has now. The GOP has gerrymander ohio so badly, and this could have fixed this for the 2014 election.

The issue with computers and such is you run the risk of violating the voters rights act.

 

[nehalem256]

Looking at issue 2, it is sad that it was defeated. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than what Ohio has now. The GOP has gerrymander ohio so badly, and this could have fixed this for the 2014 election.

The issue with computers and such is you run the risk of violating the voters rights act.

you mean it wouldn't gerrymander districts correctly to represent minorities (aka Democratic constituencies).

 

[EagleKeeper]

So what you are saying is yes you are correct but too bad, game the system when you can, but dont complain about how bad the sytem is?

The voters made the choice.
If they do not like how the system is they can change it by their votes in 2020.

Then the Democrat majority legislature can make the "needed" adjustments to assist the Democrats.

Interesting though the same status quoe existed in 2000. The voters elected a Republican legislature.

So the people of PA have spoken pretty soundly that they want the lines drawn as they are. for presidential, they may go Blue; but for congressional and legislature , they prefer the government representation of the Republican style.

They spoke so loud that the people took away a local Democrat senate seat and some local Democrat House seats.

The Democrats may not like it; but the people have spoken! They like their choices and did not feel a mistake was made.

 

[Thump553]

The really sad thing is that the USA is the oldest democracy and generally looked upon as the shining beacon, but we are the ONLY major democracy in the world that (a) has it's elections run by partisans rather than by nonpartisan officials and (2) the only one that permits gerrymandering.

The federal constitution gives the feds the power to regulate federal elections, but we rarely have done so (civil rights laws excluded). It's past time for us to adopt a firm set of federal rules established a national nonpartisan bureau to regulate all federal elections and districts in all states, under one universal set of rules. If the states want to have their own rules for governors, dogcatchers, etc. let them go for it.

Barring that it's past time for us to have international monitors overseeing our elections.

Our present system is a disgrace-a very old disgrace admittedly, but it's gotten far worse in the last decade as far as rules and biased elections go.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Given that in the past 15-20 years, control has swung back and forth between the two parties.

That seems to indicate that voters are able to control the situation. When one side is failing the requirements they change the direction. Maybe it swings from one extreme to another vs small correction nudges.

With the exception of Reagan/Bush Sr. There had not been a succession since FDR/Truman.

So the voters seem to control the President and are able to change the shape of Congress inside 2 sessions as needed.

Overall, things are under control. It is the nitpickers that do not trust the voters and think that they should tweak the results.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

There was a Proposition on the ballot in OH to form non-partisan committees charged with re-districting. It wasn't perfect and the Republican Super PACs spent a metric crapton of money to defeat it so it went down 2:1.

In this day and age of computers, it is bullshit that the maps are drawn by humans. It should all be done by computer algorithm that equally distributes representatives amongst the population. It wouldn't take any regard to demographics or per capita income and it would actually work.

Oh !!! Can I write the algorithm please!?! Don't worry everything will be okay so long as I get to write the algorithm and computer gets to "decide".

 

[Balt]

Oh !!! Can I write the algorithm please!?! Don't worry everything will be okay so long as I get to write the algorithm and computer gets to "decide".

As long as it's made available to the public and designed by a neutral party, I think the chances of bias will stay pretty low. They couldn't be any worse than the current system in many states, at least.

The problem, of course, is that each side only looks to its own interests in the next couple of years. Why ask our candidates to actually have to compete and appeal to a broad constituency when we can create some homogeneous districts and safe seats?