Is it possible to ban gerrymandering?

[bgwah]

Completely? No, probably not.

But I think if you have very clear rules in place about county and city splits, and so on, you can greatly reduce it. I think this is more necessary than ever given how sophisticated/insane computers have allowed gerrymandering to become.

[bgwah]

I don't believe in purposely gerrymandering a strong seat for a party. But I also don't believe in purposely gerrymandering swing seats.

[bgwah]

The Constitution mandates districts, IIRC, but one idea I've liked for legislative districts is to just use the existing congressional districts and make them multi-member constituences using proportional representation for state legislative elections. This might not work in California and other states with an absurdly small number of seats in their state legislatures.

In Washington, though, we could have ten districts, each with ten seats*, for our state house.

Republicans in Seattle could be represented in the state legislature. Same with Democrats in rural Eastern Washington. This would also make it easier for minorities (like Hispanics in Central Washington) to get elected. Third parties would also have a chance to get elected.

*I believe a Constitutional amendment would be required, as the current Constitution caps the house at 99. You could also just do 9-seat districts, I guess.