Talk Elections

Option 2.

Bad idea.

Bad bad bad idea. 

Smallest districts keeping counties, cities, or whatever municipalities exist in tact unless necessary, without regard to gender, party, race, hair color, shoe size, or any other metric besides a basic headcount.

Terrible idea.

Over the years, it destroys democracy.

So, do you guys support making districts that make no attempt to collect people with similar occupations, political views, societal interests, or whatever?

I support making districts that are not drawn to benefit one political ideology or another.  And anyways, that's a pretty moot point when you consider that we have districts the size of Vermont.

These are important things to take into account... but while drawing districts taking these issues into account can sometimes lead to favoring one party over the rest... that is not the point.

I think MN does a good job of balancing rural, suburban, and urban districts.  Otherwise they are drawn by county with county splits taking place only where proportion becomes a problem.

No, but that's a different question from whether the people doing the drawing have a partisan interest. As long as it's a neutral commission doing it, the exact criteria don't worry me too much.

Morgan has expressed his support for such districts.

Yes, but I recognize that would not work, as most people are not antisocial, acultural weirdos like me.

You can't keep districts coherent without potentially taking some political factors into consideration, or at minimum things that strongly correlate.  That's kind of the nature of the beast.  I mean, otherwise, what's the point of geographic representation?  Why not just have voters choose a representative by their last name?

I mean, if you'd be cool with that, it would make perfect sense, but I'm wondering :P.

Worthy goals include:

1. what you say about districts with similar interests
2. maximizing competitive districts
3. adhering to the law regarding minority representation
4. hewing to other political boundaries such as municipal ones, and county ones, and in general considering erose lines to be a negative
5. having the percentage of the vote somewhat match the percentage of seats won in a given state

And yes, these five parameters sometimes conflict, and after hewing to the extant law, it is balancing test time.

Good idea only when it favors my party

Do you care about democracy any more than Lief does?

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