Gerrymandering

[ford_prefect42]

Gerrymandering is the process of redrawing electoral districts. It's generally used in a negative context as a form of "electoral cheating", because it can, and often does, favor one party over the other

Comments

My theory

[prester_scott]

Democrats tend to view themselves in terms of group identity, such as race and class, so they form enclaves and ghettoes.

Republicans tend to be individualists, so they will live in optimal locations for their individual or immediate family needs, with less concern for who their neighbors are.

Which is the better strategy depends very much on what the real rules of the game are.

[banner]

Here in California all the districts have been gerrymanded to guarentee that the democrats will have a majority in state offices. Some of the districts are over a hundred miles long. The only time they howl here, is when someone tries to make it less insane.

[coercedbynutmeg]

Yup, and the post-2010 redistricting was primarily to keep the same or more Dems in Congress, even when the electorate for a given congressperson changed dramatically.

[kharmii]

That's how it is in Illinois. Even though we just elected a Republican governor, it won't make a difference because we'll always have a Democratic super majority.

[dantheserene]

There are districts around Chicago that aren't even contiguous. I haven't seen that anywhere else.

[marycatelli]

If most of the constituents agreed, that would be fine. They tend to draw them on the principle 51% of the voters belong to, hypothetically, the Purple Party, and 49% to the Blue Party. So that even though 49% of the voters are Blue, all elected positions are Purple.

[ford_prefect42]

Addendum: I just found the "cook partisan voting index".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_Partisan_Voting_Index

Looking at this, there are 13 democrat districts that are more sharply partisan than the *most* partisan republican district. 18 of the top 20 most partisan districts are Democrat.

And, in the main, these districts are not particularly creatively shaped, they're pretty compact.

Which, again, lends credence to my theory that democrats are exclusive, and republicans are inclusive.

Off-topic: GISTEMP

[marmoe]

Hi ford, I've started my GISTEMP series of posts. Caught a bad cold, so it took a bit longer than planned.