Talk Elections

what would you do?

Personally, I would:

merge the two Dakotas
force WV into VA
give Puerto Rico statehood
expand Hawaii into all the US territories in the North Pacific (Midway, Guam, Micronesia)
give American Samoa statehood

We've had a bazillion threads on this... somewhere...

I wouldn't merge any states, but I would divide some.  If California, Texas and possibly New York were made into two states each, dividing the population relatively equally, they couldn't dominate the electoral college as much.  Having California vote for the loser as they did in 2000 is rare indeed. 

Merge the Northern Rocky states into Montaminghokota Territory.

Merge the Northeast into "New Canada"

Oh please.

Divide Texas into three states: East, South and West, and the North.

Cut California in NoCal and SoCal.

Merge Oregon and Washington

Merge Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

Merge the Dakotas

Merge Delaware and Maryland

Merge West Virginia and Kentucky

Cut Louisiana in two, with a north and south.

Merge Vermont into New York

As a Canadian we keep things relatively small. 13 Provinces or Territories. The U.S should have... about 20. Impractical but I hate having to try and remember 50 capitals.

So does Canada get New Canada?

Siege

New Canada is to Canada as New Mexico is to Mexico

But feel free to take them.

Just for fun...

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Sorry for slow loading.

Merge Indiana, Michigan, and Minnesota, rename it to 'The Best State', and proclaim the capitol to be Fort Wayne.

Also, combine Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho, and put the name (and name of capitol) up for bid for corporations.

:)

No offense, but that map is ugly.

The sight of it pains me for some straange reason.

I said it was just for fun...

Argh, no! Western Oregon and western Washington, maybe...but otherwise NO.

Would that also merge eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington?

Would Gary be kicked out?

New England

Merge VT, NH and Maine. (-2)
Keep Massachusetts the same. (=0)
Merge RI and Connecticut. (-1)
Split NY into Upstate NY (name it Niagara, maybe?) and Long Island/NYC/the south of the state (keep it as New York). (+1)
Keep NJ the same. (=0)

Total -2 states

Midatlantic and South

Split Pensylvania, all but bottom southeast corner staying as Pennsylvania, lower southeast corner forming a new state (maybe...Liberty?). (+1)
Merge Maryland and Delaware, and make DC subject to Maryland state laws, but still otherwise autonomous (-1)
Keep Virginia the same. (=0)
Keep West Virginia the same (=0)
Cut the western third of North Carolina off, and the eastern thrird of Tennessee of, and create Jefferson. (+1)
Keep Georgia the same. (=0)
Split Florida from just south of Orlando in a diagonal to just north of Tampa. (+1)
Keep Alabama the same. (=0)
Merge Mississippi with the remainder of Tennessee. (-1)
Keep Louisiana the same. (=0)
Keep Arkansas the same. (=0)

Total +1

Midwest

Split Missouri into two, following the river about a 1/5th of the state deep, leaving the non-river part as an independent state called...?, and merging the remaining area with southern Illinois, calling the new state Missouri, and leaving the rest of Illinois as Illinois. (+1)
Keep Indiana the same. (=0)
Merge Kentucky with the southwestern corner of Ohio. (=0)
Split the rest of Ohio into two, loosely based on a southwest-northeast line. (+1)
Keep Michgian the same, but move the peninsular to Wisconsin, which will otherwise be kept the same (=0)
Keep Iowa the same. (=0)
Keep Minnesota the same. (=0)

Total +2

Plains, Coasts and Mountains

Merge the Dakotas. (-1)
Cut of Nebraska's west and give it to Wyming, merge the remainder of Nebraska with Kansas (-1).
Keep Oklahoma the same. (=0)
split Texas into three; ome, the north above the bottom bit of NM excluding that little bit that touches the border, one based on th far east of the state incorporatring Houston, Dallas, Forth Worth etc,., and one with the remainder, primarily the southwest and center. (+2)
Merge New Mexico and Eastern Arizona. (-1)
Keep Colorado the same. (=0)
Merge Wyoming with it's new bit of Nebraska, and Western Montana (in a direct line with its current western border). (=0)
Merge the remainder of Montana with Idaho. (-1)
Merge Western Arizona with southern Nevada and the southernmost 1/6th of California. (=0)
Merge the rest of Nevada with Utah. (-1)
Split the remainder of California into two; the northern half and the 'middle' 2/6ths (+1)
Keep Oregon the same. (=0)
Keep Washinton the same. (=0)
Keep Alaska the same. (=0)
Kee Hawaii the same. (=0)

Total -2

Other

Give Puerto Rico statehood (+1)

Grand Total=50 states+DC

I would also give FL the Virgin Islands.

Oh yes, I forgot about that.  Yes.  Gary is added to Illinois.  Detroit stays in 'The Best State', though :)

For completeness on this thread, I'll link (http://www.physics.niu.edu/~fortner/maps/9-nation-states.htm) to my effort from another thread earlier this year.

That map looks a lot like the one I made. I didn't post mine though.

No. They would sink into what I would name "Lake Alcon is the Coolest Person Ever."

I appreciate your comments. I will freely admit that other than a week in Boise two years ago, and some colleagues from Idaho Falls, I have had little personal contact with ID. In my map I avoided an unnecessary split of states. UT was difficult, because it remained under my 2.5 M population threshold (but not by 2010), but i didn't have a clear guide as to what counties should be attached to UT from AZ, NV, ID or WY. I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for the ideas, Ill try to incorporate them.  However, your split leaves Clark and Fremont counties isolated from the rest. I'd guess that if they are more like the bordering area in MT and Yellowstone, WY, so I'll put them there.

Boise was very nice in August, but I didn't see much outside the city. Most of my time was near the State University, but I did take a day to see the Capitol, which was refreshing. It is one of the few Caputols I've been that really seemed to understand that it was the people's building.

Second question on your selection of counties: Is Twin Falls really part of North Utah? I wouldn't have guessed it, but I'll rely on your local expertise.

In that case I'll put Clark and Fremont into MT for now. I'd like them to be connected to a state and there doesn't seem to be any road to connect them to western ID.  The move adds one Congressional seat to UT at the expense of ID. The updated map is:
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Anyone who tried to divide Texas could never walk the streets in that state again.

LOL, so true.

My brother lived and worked in TX for many years, and I spent many weeks on trips to work on the Super Collider in the early 1990's.  They surely would never split, but I met many in TX who describe three separate cultures centered around Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Austin is a convenient meeting place in the middle of those three.

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(Whoops, I forgot to label WI and IL, oh well)

Have you seen this map?

http://www.massinc.org/commonwealth/new_map_exclusive/ten_regions_index.html

Nice, I love my reigon as presented there.

It's been shown in the past, but its's been a while. So, it's useful to show it again.

However, I don't care for a number of characterizations in the map. I think the authors concentrated too much of voting patterns and topography, and not enough on culture and values. They also forced the populations to be too equal, and married regions that really wouldn't go together. For example:

1) Minneapolis/St. Paul is nothing like Memphis
2) Boston is not like Seattle
3) Columbus has a very different feel than Omaha
4) Concord NH and Cheyenne WY are very different small state capitals

I live in Southern Lowlands

In New Mexico, you should probably put Lincoln and Otero Counties with West Texas-Oklahoma,
and put Catron County with Northern Arizona...

I actually started with your quote below:

The problem I had was that If Otero and Lincoln went to West Texas, the state of Upper Rio Grande became very pinched at El Paso. I relied on other sources to move Alamogordo to Upper Rio Grande, and then I let Lincoln County go along with it. The physicist in me also liked the idea of keeping White Sands with Los Alamos. If Alamogordo really should stay with Roswell instead of Las Cruces, I'll take another look.

On the West side I thought about moving San Juan and McKinley into the sate of Nevada with northern AZ. The principal reason would be to keep the Navajo Nation together in one state. Moving them with Cibola and Catron could make some sense. Originally I just followed the state line, but I'm open to suggestions. If Nevada includes parts of NM, do I need to revisit southern UT as well?

Re: Otero County. Well, Upper Rio Grande does become pinched, because in places it doesn't extend too far from the river. But I'm curious what the 'other sources' are that you mentioned that thought Alamogordo should be with El Paso...? And Los Alamos is an island in the middle of the Upper Rio Grande...it is not at all like its surroundings, and is a high-tech Republican (and Anglo, I think) outpost. But county boundaries are often drawn badly in any event.

Re: The NorthWest. Moving San Juan, McKinley, Cibola, and Catron into Greater Nevada would be an excellent idea! :) And southern UT probably should be moved there as well - the Dine are one of the major, intact, Native groups in the U.S. Perhaps the southwest bootheel of NM could be added to southern Arizona?

As I mentioned on my link, much of the basis for may map was the 1981 work by Joel Garreau in his book Nine Nations of North America. His divisions are cultural not political, so I didn't look at voting much when dividing the counties. I started by dividing along his "national" lines, and tried to follow them most closely. The "state" boundaries within a "nation", used existing political and geographical boundaries as much as possible.

In the book, the Rio Grande valley is within MexAmerica which runs from LA to the gulf coast. Philosophically, he found this region to be typified by a boom-town spirit, and a willingness to accomdate growth, even against natural obstacles. In eastern NM, he took the boundary to be the Pecos River, east of which was the Breadbasket. The Breadbasket was typified by its ties to the farming culture of the Great Plains and a self-determination to be able to live off of the land.

Since I was following county lines, I included those counties in the Pecos valley in the Breadbasket state of West Texas, and those to the west in the MexAmerica state of the Upper Rio Grande. Since I've not been to any part of NM other than Alberquerque, I started with the book definition, then looked to see if there were any discernible differences based on web info.  Poking around the Alamogordo web sites and census numbers I didn't see anything to shift Otero to go with the counties east across the mountains. When I looked at the pictures and highlights, Otero looked more like AZ than OK. Feel free to advise me on other cultural factors I overlooked.

In the northwest I will shift some counties. West of the Continental Divide, Garreau set old Route 66 as the dividing line between MexAmerica and the nation of the Empty Quarter. I can see extending that farther to the southeast to Catron.

I like that 10 regions map.  I probably have good reason to like it since my two favorite states (NH and WY) are both sagebrush, my preferred region.

I've updated the link and map to reflect the move of northwestern NM counties to Nevada. To keep the population above 2.5 million, I made some adjustments in south TX.

#1.) Merge the Dakotas for starters, of course.
#2.) Divide California into Northern and Southern California (with the border between the two at the northern borders of San Luis Obispo, Kern and San Bernardino Counties).
#3.) Separate NYC and Long Island (as one state) from the rest of NY.
#4.) In Illinois, make Cook, DuPage and Will Counties one state (Chicago), and the rest of IL another. #5.) Merge WY and MT.
#6.) Split TX into several states as follows: the Expanded Panhandle (consisting of every county that is north of Throckmorton County's southern border and to the west of Archer County's eastern border), Rio Grande (including the counties of El Paso; Hudspeth; Culberson; Jeff Davis; Reeves; Presidio; Brewster; Pecos; Terrell; Crockett; Val Verde; Kinney; Uvalde; Medina; Maverick; Zavala; Frio; Dimmitt; La Salle; Webb; Atascosa; McMullen; Duval; Zapata; Jim Hogg; Jim Wells; Brooks; Starr; Hidalgo; Cameron; Willacy; Kenedy; Kleberg and Nueces) and Texas (the remaining 166 counties).
    6a.) Add Oklahoma's westernmost three counties (Cimarron, Texas, Beaver) to the
           Expanded Panhandle.
#7.) Combine KY and TN.
#8.) Combine AL and MS.
#9.) Add Baldwin County, AL, to Florida.
#10.) Move Buchanan; Tazewell; Giles; Dickenson and Bland Counties to WV.
#11.) Move Boyd, Lawrence, Carter, Elliott, Morgan, Johnson, Martin, Greenup, Rowan, Pike, Floyd, Magoffin, Letcher, Knott, Perry, Leslie and Breathitt Counties to WV.
#12.) Merge VT, ME and NH.
#13.) Merge HI and AK. Why not? It'd be fun to see where they place their capital, how they vote, etcetra.
#14.) Move the 4 WV counties north of Wetzel into Ohio.
#15.) Merge NJ and DE.
#16.) Divide Iowa into two states, East Iowa and West Iowa. Every county whose western border is not farther west than Warren's will be in East Iowa, and the residue in West Iowa. (Leaving 52 counties in East Iowa and 47 in West Iowa.)