An idea to tame gerrymandering. Would it work?

[DetlefK]

The biggest problem I see with gerrymandering is that districts can have any shape: You can lump all voters of one party into one weirdly shaped district, for example extremely long and thin, connecting two areas that would normally end up in different districts.

So how about applying a restriction to the shape of electoral districts?
When looking at the geometric shape of the district, the radius of the circum-circle may only be 3 times bigger than the radius of the in-circle.

For a square, the ratio would be sqrt(2):1, that's about 1.4:1.
For an even-sided triangle, the ratio would be exactly 2:1.

[HERVEPA]

1. No it would not. You are not understanding the problem.

The legislatures could create districts that are not gerrymandered now. They do not for political reasons.
Those same political reasons are why they would not pass a law mandating what you mention above.

[el_bryanto]

5. Yep - there are states that do it better than others

But in general, the legislature - one of the most politicized of our political bodies - is in charge of this; and the party in power generally favors re doing things to suit themselves.

Bryant

[House of Roberts]

2. A computer program could be used to impartially draw

district lines, using existing boundaries such as state lines, county lines, city limits, and natural boundaries such as rivers and mountains. A priority could be assigned to each type of boundary, and a tolerance value assigned for population variation in the districts of a state.

[RC]

3. Someone needs to do that to show how out of whack our voting districts are.

[MineralMan]

4. The redistricting rules in Minnesota are something like that.

Extreme gerrymandering is very difficult in this state.

[HERVEPA]

6. See my response above. They are not gerrymandered because they can't do it right.

They are gerrymandered because the legislature, who would have to enact the change, purposely want it the way is.

[House of Roberts]

11. Ah, you are referring to intent.

I was referring to capability.

[HERVEPA]

12. Capability is moot without intent, and specific plans are unneeded with intent (in my opinion)

[HereSince1628]

7. IMO a computer algorithm could provide 3 maps using lowest edge to volume

ratio to determine districts and then the legislature could pick one of them.

I'd love to see such a thing.

[treestar]

8. That would be great

Though of course would it undo some blue districts is the question. Republicans accuse us of it too, especially to create districts that will send a minority representative. But then that tends to be cities, which would naturally fall together as logical districts.

[ellenfl]

9. our current gummint officials, on every level, would not allow it. eom

[Egalitarian Thug]

10. Applied as a federal law, yes it would. Shape wouldn't really matter as long as it is consistent.

John Dingell is the poster-boy for why allowing states to create their own districting scheme is a bad idea. He's been in the House, in the same district seat since 1955. He inherited the seat from his father and that district started in Detroit and has moved with the white people far out into the suburbs.

He is a Democrat and generally considered one of the better ones, but he has also been the steadfast and unwavering tool of the Big Three, fighting against and frequently blocking every single proposal to improve safety and reduce automobile emissions for almost 60 years. He's also another in the very long list of Congresspersons that have been the recipients of extraordinarily good financial fortune amassing a personal fortune of $3M - $7M while earning Congressional pay.

[woo me with science]

13. Our representation has been purchased away from us with corporate money.

Fixing gerrymandering is fine, but it will mean little so long as the current structure of our system allows corporate money to select and elect and drive the policies of our candidates.

We need to focus on eliminating the power of banks and corporations to use their vast coffers to choose our candidates and the policies they support, and destroy those who challenge corporate rule. We can't just focus on electing Democrats anymore. We need to fix the money-corrupted system to make sure the Democrats we elect represent us and not the one percent.