Slay the Gerrymanders
Here's some good news from the NYT.
I don't know of any issues more important than redistricting reform. This is something I lay awake worrying about at night.
Wait...did I write that or only think it? Holy God, I am a geek...
Anyway. Our democracy is slipping closer and closer to becoming a joke because the voters no longer choose the politicians, the politicians choose the voters. Witness the recent, blatant, anti-democratic (and anti-Democratic) power-grab by DeLay and his minions in Texas. Why there weren't riots in the streets over that I'll never understand. Sure, the Democrats gerrymandered NC districts after the last census, but at least they were honorable enough to merely cheat in the time-honored way, not between censuses like DeLay & co. I mean, there are limits, right? Sheesh.
Iowa already has an independent commission for drawing districts, and (believe it or not) the Gropenator has proposed such a commission for California.
E-mail your congresspersons!!!!!!! THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's some good news from the NYT.
I don't know of any issues more important than redistricting reform. This is something I lay awake worrying about at night.
Wait...did I write that or only think it? Holy God, I am a geek...
Anyway. Our democracy is slipping closer and closer to becoming a joke because the voters no longer choose the politicians, the politicians choose the voters. Witness the recent, blatant, anti-democratic (and anti-Democratic) power-grab by DeLay and his minions in Texas. Why there weren't riots in the streets over that I'll never understand. Sure, the Democrats gerrymandered NC districts after the last census, but at least they were honorable enough to merely cheat in the time-honored way, not between censuses like DeLay & co. I mean, there are limits, right? Sheesh.
Iowa already has an independent commission for drawing districts, and (believe it or not) the Gropenator has proposed such a commission for California.
E-mail your congresspersons!!!!!!! THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by Winston Smith at
6:27 AM
4 Comments:
I'd have to think a bit more about this, but on the face of it, it sounds like a fantastic idea.
Excellent find.
Count myself shocked (I didn't lie awake over this) as someone who found out during the 2000 Presidential elections that not only are guidelines for tallying and counting votes federal positions surprisingly varied among different states (and among different counties in the same state), but that the very people responsible for officiating the results are often themselves partisans (biggest obvious example: Katharine Harris).
I guess not having a voting monoculture could actually help reduce fraud (you have to come up with more than one way to cheat) but having the results be certified by partisans? That seems, well, massively suboptimal.
(that's all in addition to the fact that redistricting is also done on a partisan basis; all these things are massively suboptimal).
Here in California, both sides participated in the gerrymander---the Republicans satisfied themselves with a minority of safe seats, since running a neck-and-neck election every two years is a bother for the career politician, and bad for job stability.
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