Redrawn State Lines So That There Are 50 States With Approximately Equal Populations

[tekisui]

Source: Fakeisthenewreal.org

Electoral College Reform

The electoral college is a time-honored system that, has only broken down three times in over 200 years. However, it's obvious that reforms are needed. The organization of the states should be altered. This Electoral Reform Map redivides the territory of the United States into 50 bodies of equal size. The 2000 Census records a population of 281,421,906 for the United States. The states ranged in population from 493,782 to 33,871,648. In this map, new states have formed, all with equal populations of roughly 5,617,000.





more: http://www.fakeisthenewreal.org/reform/

[dkf]

I notice you have x'd out Hawaii.

[tekisui]

8. Alaska and Hawaii are part of the states of Olympia and Coronado, respectively.

From link.

[dkf]

16. So Hawaii's part time state senators and representatives have to maintain two residences?

That's kind of nuts.

[asdjrocky]

1. I'm from the great state of San Joaquin.

[lunatica]

2. Me too

Interesting map

[asdjrocky]

5. I say it's about time we got some respect.

Not sure how Hawaii and Alaska feel about being part of Olympia and Coronado, but they'll just have to get over it.

[Webster Green]

7. Yeah, me too.

Or maybe Willamette. I must be pretty close to the state line. :smoke:

[Flaneur]

24. Viva San Joaquin. We'd make a mightly nice state.

Wine, weed, orchards, farms, mountains, seacoasts. Yeah.

[Webster Green]

30. Yes, all of that, and it is one of the most civilized places on the planet.

I love Northern California! :hippie:

[asdjrocky]

69. Maybe I could even get one of our Senators to come to my town?

In a fantasy world, this would be so great.

[Lyric]

3. I'm from Allegheny, but it should be Monongahela.

It's a much more interesting and important river in this area.

[1awake]

22. Very true n/t

[Quantess]

4. Well, it's interesting, at least.

"Great Smoky" is the best name. Are roots bitter in Idaho? Why don't they call that region "Great Potato".

[elleng]

21. 'In late August of 1805,

instead of admiring the flower, Meriwether Lewis saw and tasted the root. Writing in his journal, Lewis described the root as “cilindric and as white as snow throughout, except some small parts of the hard black rind which they had not seperated in the preperation… became perfectly soft by boiling, but had a very bitter taste, which was naucious to my pallate, and transfered them to the Indians who had eat them heartily.” Given this description, Lewis might vigorously endorse the common name of this plant: bitterroot.'

http://www.nps.gov/lecl/naturescience/bitterroot.htm

[MilesColtrane]

58. I would have gone with "Spudsylvania".

[Flaneur]

87. Bitterroot mountain range in Montana.

[Quantess]

91. Oh, to live on Bitterroot Mountain,

with the Barkers and the colored balloons. You can't be twenty...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsACIBI5NPk

[Flaneur]

88. Bitterroot mountain range in Montana.

[LostInAnomie]

6. Wabash up!

[arcadian]

9. Plain of Sticks

[many a good man]

37. Llano Destacado means landlocked plain

[arcadian]

73. No it means Plain of Stakes.

[theophilus]

60. Staked plains....they were so featureless those exploring them had to

put down stakes in the line of sight to find their way......at least that's what I was told.

[csziggy]

10. If they do that, the counties should be redrawn also

So they all have about the same population and are more aligned with the voting areas. That would make voting districts that are more logical than the current gerrymandered mess that has no relationship with historic or demographic divisions.

[elleng]

17. The STATES will have to do that, and lots more.

[Sancho]

11. Ocala? Hell no - name it Disney or nothing!

Can I get an avatar for my signature?

[RockaFowler]

48. I was thinking the same thing

Why Ocala?? Heck Ocala isn't even the largest city in that region. Okeechobee would be a lot better name. We get the lake and the town all in one that way.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

53. The Ocala National Forest is beautiful.

A much more apt name for that region than some touristy rodent.

[KamaAina]

59. The city of Ocala isn't even in the state of Ocala

:shrug:

[ddeclue]

63. Ocalastan? Mickeystan? Disneyland? Mouseastan? Ifouristan?

:rofl:

[Sancho]

79. anything except jebistan!

:rofl:

[csziggy]

76. Why not Mickey or Goofy? n/t

[elleng]

12. LOVE IT!

I love maps, even fictional ones! Is The Delta really part of the delta? 'Misery' the only surviving state name! I'm STILL from New York!

[tekisui]

13. That is something. MO stays, and is nearly the same

shape that it is now.

[shraby]

14. It would even out the representation by Senators also.

[elleng]

15. Right. That was one of the great compromises the founders ended up with.

Little Rhode Island and BIGGO Massachusetts/Virginia/etc.

[LeftyMom]

18. That would be the advantage. Right now we let cows and corn vote.

And apparently cows and corn are big fans of helmet haired fundamentalist whackaloons.

[tinrobot]

19. Every time someone moves, we'd have to redraw the borders.

[Ardent15]

20. From the SF Bay here. nt

[Cant trust em]

23. I like how Missouri has stayed pretty much the same. nt

[Truth2Tell]

26. And apparently Missouri and New York

are the only states that get to keep their names. Washington looks about the same, but now we have to be Olympia. Crap that.

[surrealAmerican]

47. They are apparently already average.

[TheWraith]

25. Works for me.

Let the plains states have their knuckledraggers. Wyoming will no longer get 99 times the Senate representation per capita that California does.

[lib_wit_it]

85. This is such an important problem now, I wonder if there is any fix that has any chance at all of be

enacted. Or do we libs have to take turns living in Wyoming, etc. so the fundies don't control the senate?

[krispos42]

27. Man, what have I unleashed?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=7541824#7561111

[Electric Monk]

34. Nice

[Romulox]

28. But tiny, ignorant, rural states are what have made America great!

What would our "democracy" be if North Dakotans didn't have ten times the say of Californians? :shrug:

[piedmont]

29. Hate it. Alabama gets chopped up and apportioned to 4 other states.

Looks like the same fate for Colorado.
And "The Delta" is only about 1/4 delta.

[Blue_In_AK]

31. I am happy to be part of Olympia

I've always thought of Seattle as "Anchorage South" anyway. :)

[alp227]

32. LOL...the Bay Area as its OWN state?

California has been split apart...oh no...our sense of unity is gone!

And wow, if the states were this way, then big cities would be their own states, and rural areas would make bigger states.

And what about Washington, DC?

[many a good man]

38. California can become three states

I remember hearing a long time ago that when it was admitted to the Union California retained a special right to be able to divide itself into as many as three separate states.

I'm now unable to find any reference to this idea on the internets. Has anybody else ever heard about this?

[MilesColtrane]

65. Never heard that.

But, Texas still retains the right to split into as many as five states.

Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States

...new States of convenient size not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas and having sufficient population, may, hereafter by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof,...

[Greyhound]

33. Whatever shakes 'em up, why not. K&R

[MadHound]

35. What is the purpose of this?

After all, it's not like the population of these new states will have been once again redistributed, and there will be winners and losers:shrug: So why bother with an extreme solution like this that is horribly expensive.

[MadHound]

36. What is the purpose of this?

After all, it's not like the population of these new states will have been once again redistributed, and there will be winners and losers:shrug: So why bother with an extreme solution like this that is horribly expensive.

[janet118]

44. It makes the Senate a more representative body . . .

Right now small population states (Idaho, Wyoming, Maine) are over represented and have inordinate power over legislation.

[MadHound]

49. That's why we have the House, to give states with larger population more power

Sorry if you don't like the solution that our founding fathers came up with, but I think that it is rather ingenious.

It would be prohibitively expensive to make this sort of thing reality, and in the end it wouldn't solve a thing since populations are moving around all the time. What, are you going to redraw state boundaries every ten years after the census is taken?

[Mechatanketra]

74. "640 should be enough for anyone"

That's why we have the House, to give states with larger population more power. Sorry if you don't like the solution that our founding fathers came up with, but I think that it is rather ingenious.

The House also gives disproportionate representation to low population states, because we capped the size of the House while still guaranteeing every state 1 representative. Illinois has 23-24 times Wyoming's population, but only 19 representatives. If the current House kept the same population ratio* as our ingenious founding fathers', then Wyoming would actually have 14 reps to Illinois's 349.

* Yes, that would make for a huge legislature. We're a huge country. The government's going to be inefficient no matter what, we've just decided to push that inefficiency towards the "resolution" (inaccurate/unresponsive representation) rather than speed (i.e. dealing with larger quorums and longer rolecalls, votes, and debates).

The Senate solution is primarily "ingenious" from the standpoint of trying to bribe a bunch of pre-existing quasi-nations into becoming a single government — comparable to the provisions to allow slaves to partially count for censuses, and to set a 20-year ban on slave trade regulation. It was a pragmatic solution to a problem 200+ years ago; the problem it solved is moot, and now the "solution" is a problem.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

75. Idaho isn't small.

It's enormous. It just doesn't have a high population density.

[Romulox]

54. You're aware that we do this every 10 years (or so!) with the House, no?

:hi:

[Jennicut]

39. Southern New England, huh?

We must have a lot of people in this area, because that state still is not that big. I know just by the terrible traffic we have here in CT...

[HughBeaumont]

40. North Coaster here.

No worries about who we'd be for. Our whole area has been traditionally democratic since the 90s.

The territory below us should be carried by Cincinnati, Dayton, Athens and Columbus.

[cali]

41. fantasy politics.

[Obamanaut]

42. Here you go from a DUer post last week, with more responses in the thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=7541824#7562474

30. FYI, here's the original source

[tiny elvis]

43. does the cartographer disdain native american names?

do you want to change from a majority of states with names derived from the natives to almost none?
will hawaiians ever stop calling themselves such?
i like okefenokee, though

[Retrograde]

80. quite a few Native American names

Willamette, Mojave, Pecos (maybe), Missouri, Chicago, Wabash, Tombigbee, Okefenokee, Erie, Allegheny, Susquehanna, Chesapeake, Potomac, Pamlico. What I want to know is where Brownia comes from.

[JesterCS]

45. GOD STILL IN SW OHIO. i cant escape!!! n/t lol

[arendt]

46. This has been my personal issue for over 10 years...

Proposals such as the above have been made for over thirty years.

But, such proposals are only PART OF the solution. Please, please, see my under-visited website:

http://www.poly-ticker.org/index.php?title=Boundaries_of_states

Thanks

[Hosnon]

50. How often would the lines be redrawn? Our population is quite mobile.

Perhaps we could leave the state lines as is and distribute something like "federal districts" to each state based on population.

[Romulox]

55. Every 10 years (sound familiar?) nt

[mike_c]

51. hoo-ray for Willamette!-- although I'd prefer the name "Jefferson..."

...since a big chunk of that is already the erstwhile state of Jefferson: http://www.jeffersonstate.com/

[Igel]

52. We've never had states of equal population.

Even when the Senate was established, the states were unequal. It makes the country moderate. And while I'm sure that I'd prefer a country that's extremist in the same ways I am--at least for a year or two--I doubt others would.

The entire US government is set up with checks and balances. Three branches, any two of which is generally enough to quell the third. Two houses, keeping each other in check. States that formerly to a greater extent, but still to a significant extent keep the federal government in check, and a federal government to keep the states in check. It's a neat system. Dysfunctional, when the group making the judgment can't call all the shots. But otherwise surprisingly durable and effective, at least when the population isn't itself dysfunctional.

If you think the government's not able to work well because of gridlock, just consider that to a very large extent it reflects the population. When you see those with (D) and (R) unable to talk and cooperate, remember that those people are put in power by people who vote for them. Their dysfunctional is the populace's dysfunction.

[Romulox]

56. "We've never had suffrage for women." nt

[Bill McBlueState]

67. When the nation was founded

the largest state was about ten times as populous as the smallest.

Now, the largest state is more than 100 times as populous as the smallest.

You can imagine how someone might think the composition of the Senate was an excusable compromise then, and unacceptably unfair now.

[lib_wit_it]

86. Unforgivably unacceptable now. Unacceptably unforgivable.

[Union Yes]

57. Woohoo I still live in Chicago! =) .. this is rather intriguing.

K&R

[Chisox08]

81. Same here!

Does that make Mayor Daley, Gov. Daley?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

61. Free da UP, eh?

Still part of Michigan...arg!

[ddeclue]

62. Proof that there are people with clearly too much time on their hands.. no thanks!

:P

Doug D.
Ocalastan (formerly part of Florida..)

:rofl:

[ddeclue]

64. While funny and entertaining.. this is the kind of thing the freepers use against us with voters

to make us out to be radicals. Not good. Disapprove of it.

[muriel_volestrangler]

77. Radical?

:rofl:

The freepers might distrust it, because it shows us to be numerate. Yeah, that's radical for a freeper; but I think that freepers are not going to be able to say "oooh, look, 'voters', there's a Democrat-supporting website that linked to another one that showed 50 equal population states! Be very, very afraid!!!!!" with any success.

[ddeclue]

66. Oh and Atlantastan being its own state.. the people of Georgia outside of Atlanta

have been accusing Atlantans of that for decades.. :rofl:

[annabanana]

68. These seem to make some sense...n/t

[ContraBass Black]

70. The borders cannot be redrawn as quickly as population migrates.

[RushIsRot]

71. I hope this will cause Brownia to turn more blue-ia. But I doubt it.

[Spike89]

72. Regional interests lose out

By making the entire congress representational, we'd lose the balance that is already strained between the interests of the heavily populated eastern seaboard and the much less densely populated midwest and western states. The reality is that for many critical issues, regional states tend to vote together to protect their interests. From nuclear waste storage, to water rights, to mining and forestry discussions, population-only politics would be regionally unfair.

[lib_wit_it]

89. ...to gay rights, to war-mongering, to rejection of gun laws, to anti-environmentalists, to...

basically any non-reich-wing cause.

[OllieLotte]

78. Perfect...now nobody move. n/t

[Bluebear]

83. lol

[Thothmes]

82. Might not be a bad idea, all one needs to do is

amend article IV section 2 of the Constitution.

[Art_from_Ark]

84. So Northwest Arkansas is part of Brownia?

Brownia? Where the heck did they get that name from? John Brown, of Pottowatomie Creek (Kansas) Massacre fame?
A more appropriate name for that area would be "Wal-Martistan".

[shintao]

90. Make Mine a Grid

I would like a checker board of equal square miles per fifty states, border lines running East to West and North to South.

I am not concerned with Electorial reform, but with an advancement of the way we look at America from a technological view. Might just assign states numbers while we are at it.


NOTE: Who decided what was the "top" of the World, and the "down-under?" Couldn't it have just as easily been the opposite?

[muriel_volestrangler]

92. At a guess, it's because northern hemisphere navigators used Polaris

It's 50:50 whether you regard the north or south pole of a compass as the 'pointing' bit; but with the stars in your hemisphere, you find your pole star as the one fixed star. So, if you're then facing north, it's natural to want to look down at the chart or map in front of you and have north at teh top of it.

[slackmaster]

93. It hasn't "broken down" at any point in its history

On the three occasions on which the EC vote conflicted with and overrode popular vote, it did exactly what it was intended to do.