General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhich State has the Most Gerrymandered Districts?
Which State has the Most Gerrymandered Districts?
Posted at 7:50 a.m. today
Christopher Ingraham: The point of gerrymandering is to give your opponents a small number of safe seats, while drawing yourself a larger number of seats that are not quite as safe, but that you can expect to win comfortably.
The compactness of a district a measure of how irregular its shape is, as determined by the ratio of the area of the district to the area of a circle with the same perimeter can serve as a useful proxy for how gerrymandered the district is. Districts that follow a generally regular shape tend to be compact, while those that have a lot of squiggles and offshoots and tentacle-looking protuberances tend to score poorly on this measure.
I calculated compactness scores for each of the districts of the 113th Congress and mapped them so you can see where the least compact and likely most-gerrymandered districts are.
North Carolina comes out near the top with three of the ten most gerrymandered districts.
http://wonkwire.rollcall.com/2014/05/19/state-gerrymandered-districts/
liberal N proud
(60,336 posts)That is my observation.
Personal experience, here in Ohio it is absolutely insane how some of the districts were drawn just to drive certain candidates out of office.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)FBaggins
(26,748 posts)LonePirate
(13,426 posts)The 2020 census and elections cannot come soon enough to fix these travesties. The higher turnout will prevent another 2010 disaster.
CrispyQ
(36,478 posts)There was a lot there I didn't know.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)with? Why not a single national media outlet does not point this out, simply by a graphic of the gerrymandered districts is another great crime and perversion of democracy.
Bandit
(21,475 posts)The ONLY way to redraw the lines is by having the Majority after the 2020 Census. Because of the gerry amndered Districts that will be a real challenge. It probab ly will only get worse instead of better.
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)I think that a roughly-circular district with finely-zigzagged edges (which will have a high ratio of perimeter to area, but contain a circle nearly as large as the largest circle that contains it) is not as big a warning sign as a very long, thin district (which will need a much larger circle to hold it than it can be fitted into).
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)The joke was that his new district was 2 blocks wide and 300 miles long.
Then they tried running a woman using her Hispanic maiden name(which she never used until then) against him in a district running down to the Valley from Austin.
Funny thing was Lloyd speaks fluent Spanish and she didn't.
starroute
(12,977 posts)tabbycat31
(6,336 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)it's U.S. Highway 29. That one is the result of one of the few legitimate uses of gerrymandering: to create a majority African American CD.
Takket
(21,577 posts)that defines specifically how the districts are drawn. gerrymandering disenfranchises the public. it is a sickening practice that no one seems to even know about.
otohara
(24,135 posts)especially when the year ends in 00.
When will we Dems ever learn?
IronLionZion
(45,457 posts)Many Americans from both parties are in a punitive mood and Dems are just easier to punish.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)Your fundamental point of the importance of midterms is of course correct, and especially so when the year ends in 0 (as I assume you meant to say).
Still, I don't think it's a matter of learning. Some demographic groups that are good for us, notably young people, tend to be slack about voting. With an attention-grabbing Presidential race at the top of the ticket, they'll show up, but otherwise they're iffy. That's likely to be the case for the foreseeable future.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)only 2/3 of the states will have elections for US Senate, and many Congressional districts may have just token opposition or even uncontested races. That means in some districts, there might not be any elections at the national level. That can reduce enthusiasm for voting among all but the most hard-core voting groups.
otohara
(24,135 posts)I meant to type one 0.
JHB
(37,161 posts)1900, 2000, 2100?
You may be off by an order of magnitude.