Texas! ... no?

The State of Insanity!

I blame Canada.

Doesn't look that bad other than number 3. They gerrymandered the shiat out of that one.

Pennsylvania will have to try harder.

I live in Jacksonville, and it's odd knowing I share a district with 3 other counties and Orlando.

"However, when 10 News took a closer look at the lines, we found questionable district lines putting next-door neighbors voting for different politicians"

The dumbass is strong in this statement. Neighbors being split by a district border? The horror! It only happens on every district border every hundred feet or so.

Also, the reporter interviewed one person for the whole article, Scott Arceneaux of the Florida Democratic Party.

This crap article may be right, but that won't save it from being a crap article.

It's been fixed now, but this was always one of my favorites:



Did an undergrad ArcGIS project on this district back in the day.

I wouldn't bet against Florida having the stupidest maps, but you wouldn't be able to tell that from this article.

"You mean that someone representing a rural district might live hours away from the arbitrarily chosen point of Mongolid Falls, population 200? OMFG!"

I don't think this reporter had heard of redistricting before doing the ten minutes of research that went into that.

FreakinB: District map thread! Here's mine, Peter King's district in NY.

[upload.wikimedia.org image 640x395]

not too bad, couple of good size contiguous chinks

Here's mine:

Puerto Rico?

Guess which state has the worst redistricting maps...

And by worst subby means not favoring the Democrats

Does it start with 'F' and end with 'lorida'?

Relevant:

Top 10 Most Gerrymandered Congressional Districts (new window)

/MD 3 voter here

nosferatublue: "However, when 10 News took a closer look at the lines, we found questionable district lines putting next-door neighbors voting for different politicians"

The dumbass is strong in this statement. Neighbors being split by a district border? The horror! It only happens on every district border every hundred feet or so.

Also, the reporter interviewed one person for the whole article, Scott Arceneaux of the Florida Democratic Party.

This crap article may be right, but that won't save it from being a crap article.

I would assume that most district boundaries go along county lines or major roads, so next door neighbors wouldn't be split. The "neighbor" on the other side of the 4 lane highway perhaps, but not the house four feet away from yours.

Yeah, that district map doesn't look too bad except for District 3 which snakes from Orlando to Jacksonville.

It's impossible to please everyone in a redistricting map but as long as they're not gerrymandered to hell, I don't really have a problem with most of them. I mean I've worked with redistricting in my job and the whole process is a pain in the ass. Like people complain about a street serving as a boundary and dividing an area, but the census blocks they're using to create the map also follow that street. Boundaries have to be drawn somewhere. It's often easier to just to pick off blocks from other districts to try to equalize the populations than to make a "clean" looking map.

Stupid Voting Rights Act, forcing weird lines to ensure that minorities have districts where they're the majority.

Not where I live, but still the undisputed King of Gerrymandering is...

dr.zaeus: It's been fixed now, but this was always one of my favorites:

[upload.wikimedia.org image 635x380]

Did an undergrad ArcGIS project on this district back in the day.

Ok, that's pretty damn bad. This one used to be mine in Chicago:

MrSeabass: Not where I live, but still the undisputed King of Gerrymandering is...

[img543.imageshack.us image 640x353]

*shakes tiny fist*

This is one area where North Dakotans kick ass. No weird points sticking out or anything!

This is the most ignorant article I've seen on the subject. Compare the 2002 maps to this version, it's night and day. Districts 3 and 23 are still highly non-compact, but they are claiming this will be required by the courts for racial reasons. The other districts are SOOO much better. Compare new 10 to old 10 (which is non contiguous via a barrier island). Compare new 12 to old 12 (U-shaped). 11 and 9 still have funny shapes, but there's time to fix that. This is just the rough draft.

The pictures of the Florida bookings was more interesting.....

WellBelowAverage: And by worst subby means not favoring the Democrats

Democrats are the largest voting bloc in Florida, outnumbering Republicans by about half a million voters. So the districts probably should favor Democrats. Not that they will, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows anything about redistricting.

Distrust the obvious, suspect the traditional...for in the past, mankind has not done well when saddling himself with governments. For example, I note in one draft report a proposal for setting up a commission to divide Florida into congressional districts and to reapportion them from time to time according to population. This is the traditional way; therefore it should be suspect, considered guilty until proven innocent.

Perhaps you feel that this is the only way. May I suggest others? Surely where a man lives is the least important thing about him. Constituencies might be formed by dividing the people by occupation...or age...or even alphabetically. Or they might not be divided, every member elected at large - and do not object that this would make it impossible for any man not widely known throughout Florida to be elected; that might be the best possible thing for Florida. You might even consider installing the candidates who receive the least number of votes; unpopular men may be just the sort to save you from Florida.

Uhh take a look at the proposed maps from the Republicans in Wisconsin. Much worse than Florida.

Cagey B: WellBelowAverage: And by worst subby means not favoring the Democrats

Democrats are the largest voting bloc in Florida, outnumbering Republicans by about half a million voters. So the districts probably should favor Democrats. Not that they will, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows anything about redistricting.

And if you knew anything about southern states since 1968 you'd know that registration numbers mean almost nothing when it comes to general elections.

I think we need to define "worst" when it comes to redistricting.

Here's mine, they fixed it now so that it only goes up to Rockford and down to Peoria. Still gerrymandered but not so bad. Naturally the teatards are still upset about it.

regindyn: This is one area where North Dakotans kick ass. No weird points sticking out or anything!

[nationalatlas.gov image 614x320]

Well, to be fair, that map only includes about forty households

FreakinB: District map thread! Here's mine, Peter King's district in NY.

[upload.wikimedia.org image 640x395]

Pfft, amateur!



WSJ called it "Political Pornography."

/Disclaimer: This isn't my district anymore. It used to be, back when it was slightly more weird-shaped than it is today.
//Used to have sections that were no wider than a single lane of I-85

GentDirkly: And if you knew anything about southern states since 1968 you'd know that registration numbers mean almost nothing when it comes to general elections.

And if YOU knew anything about southern politics, you'd know that the national divides between Republicans and Democrats don't directly translate, and lead to some "red" states like West Virginia, Arkansas and Kentucky having majority Democratic statehouses.

You'd also know that your point, such as it is, has very little to do with representation and reapportionment.

here's what the current map looks like:
Link (new window)

this is the proposed map:
Link (new window)

is one worse than the other?

12349876: nosferatublue: "However, when 10 News took a closer look at the lines, we found questionable district lines putting next-door neighbors voting for different politicians"

The dumbass is strong in this statement. Neighbors being split by a district border? The horror! It only happens on every district border every hundred feet or so.

Also, the reporter interviewed one person for the whole article, Scott Arceneaux of the Florida Democratic Party.

This crap article may be right, but that won't save it from being a crap article.

I would assume that most district boundaries go along county lines or major roads, so next door neighbors wouldn't be split. The "neighbor" on the other side of the 4 lane highway perhaps, but not the house four feet away from yours.

It sounds like you assume that neighborhoods do not sit on county lines, or that counties are delineated by major roads.

Tell me what else you assume; this borders on interesting.

C'mon Iowa, get with the gerrymandering program!



/likes Iowas rules

Fireproof: WSJ called it "Political Pornography."

/Disclaimer: This isn't my district anymore. It used to be, back when it was slightly more weird-shaped than it is today.
//Used to have sections that were no wider than a single lane of I-85

That's just where it gets started in NC, that district borders two other districts that it basically splits in half, and then there's the eastern half of the state where I life that got this whole thing started back in the 90s before the court ordered it changed...

Twice.

NC also has this...thing...

This one's not as bad as some of the others, but I'll be you can't guess where the Democrats live compared to the Republicans!



/Nashville/Memphis = blue
//Brentwood/Germantown = red

As someone once said, redistricting is where politicians get to choose their voters.

It's just a proposal. We'll have to see what the House map looks like before we really start complaining.

FreakinB: District map thread! Here's mine, Peter King's district in NY.

[upload.wikimedia.org image 640x395]

Actually that's a perfectly reasonable map.

/everyone who's congressional district isn't a perfect square thinks their's is gerrymandered.
//not that I have any love for Peter King, but let's not be stupid here.

I think Florida district 3 is still one of the worst

The Sybarite: I think Florida district 3 is still one of the worst

Yeah, and it wasn't even brought up in the article! the funny part is in downtown G ville. They cut it so that at the main corner of the UF campus if you lived across the streets or at the Holiday inn on the corner you aren't in 3, but my old house a little further back is. I'm thinking that they wanted to get all the professors and hippie students into 3 because it's a democratic district? I still don't see why they cut out the hotel, though. That's a pretty fine cut, especially when you have to ignore two major roads to do it.

\Why yes, I am a Gator.

God I love Canada. Not saying that the system is 100% perfect, but at least we have non-partisan review of electoral districts and elections.

I was so astounded when I learned about the gerrymandering system. Its crazy how parties can change the outcome of elections. It just seems so wrong.

edlmco: here's what the current map looks like:
Link (new window)

this is the proposed map:
Link (new window)

is one worse than the other?

depends on which side of the aisle you're on.

/it's only bad when the other side does it.

The Sybarite: I think Florida district 3 is still one of the worst

There is nothing that can really be done about it as it is drawn specifically with race in mind. African-Americans and Corrine Brown love it because "it gives them a voice" (and keeps getting her elected) and Republicans love it because it has very defined lines for where they are and are not going to get votes. Really, the only people that hate it are white democrats because they can't get in there. It makes 100% sense in the most segregated, racist way the possible.