[LINK] suitablyemoname on how to draw (badly or otherwise) elec

[rfmcdonald]

Inspired by the upcoming redistricting of federal electoral ridings based on the results of the last census, suitablyemoname has a nice post explaining how not to create electoral districts which fairly represent a given population. Wonderful maps play a role.



In successive maps, he shows the results of packing (concentrating voters for one party in a single district), cracking (scattering said voters throughout multiple districts), and plain old gerrymandering. These don't form good districts; electoral maps looking like this harm democracy.

How do you form good districts? suitablyemoname has a shortlist of characteristics.

A good district has three characteristics.

It is compact. The smaller and neater a district is, the less likely it has been gerrymandered or cracked. As districts get more twisted and elongated, it becomes more and more likely that they have been tailor-made to crack, pack or favour one party's chances.

It is competitive. We want as many voters as possible to have as much of a say as possible about who represents them. If every district is regularly won by a large majority of the vote, then voters don't have any meaningful choices: if you're opposed to the incumbent party, too bad. Your vote is basically meaningless. When districts are more competitive, voters have much more power over their representatives, and representatives are more accountable to voters.

It is sensible. The district borders run along obvious geographic features: a major highway, a river bed, a county or municipal border, etc. By relying upon these geographic features, it becomes much more difficult to crack, or gerrymander the districts.