Instead of having legislators or a commission redraw lines could we take the “human” element completely out of the process and just have it drawn by a computer? Well Brian Olson has created a program to do that here. He has a simulation of what each states districts might look like. California is posted below:… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Redistricting
Gerrymandering: The Tool Of Dictators?
With much international focus in the past few days on the elections in Zimbabwe it is interesting to look at how redistricting power has been used and is seen. The AP article on the upcoming elections phrases it this way: “People long cowed into silence by Mugabe’s strong-arm methods are speaking openly against their leader,… Continue Reading
Colorado’s Different Redistricting Approach
The California coalition working toward redistricting reform has produced an initiative that does not include congressional districts and has no requirement for competitiveness. However a recent bill that passed a Colorado State Senate committee takes an opposite approach. Reported in the Denver Post, SB 198 would add a criteria (ONLY to congressional redistricting) attempting an… Continue Reading
Dr. Pitney on the California Democrat Majority
From Steven Harmon’s article in the Mercury News: The biggest obstacle to a Democratic tidal wave: districts that Democrats themselves had a hand in drawing seven years ago that protect the majority party in each and make it hard for the opposing party to mount a credible challenge. “If they had drawn more competitive seats,”… Continue Reading
Right time for reform?
George Skelton in the LA Times has an article in which he looks at the political timing of the reform initiative. One interesting aspect is to look at what could have happened if the redistricting commission had been in place earlier. “Democrats whine and moan that they can’t get a two-thirds vote for the budget,”… Continue Reading
Gov. Tim Kaine seeks Reform
According to Tim Craig in the Washington Post, Virgnia Governor Tim Kaine said the State needed redistricting reform in his annual State of the Commonwealth address. The Virginia Senate passed a reform bill last year that died in the House. The Senate and House are currently split (Democratic Senate, Republican House,)which will make the 2011… Continue Reading
Pennsylvania Redistricting Hearings
The Bulletin in Philadelphia has the details of a recent hearing of the state legislature on redistricting reform. There are 3 bills currently in the legislature that deal with reform. Testimony on the bill came from Pennsylvania’s League of Women Voters and Common Cause. According to the article, “The hearing focused on the issue of… Continue Reading
Steven Maviglio Attacks Common Cause
On the California Majority Report Speaker Nunez’ spokesman Steven Maviglio criticized Common Cause and their Democratic allies on the Voters First redistricting initiative. Maviglio promises a critique of the initiative’s “problems” in the future, while focusing his current criticism on the initiative’s funders: “If you go to the Secretary of State’s website, www.ss.ca.gov, you’ll see… Continue Reading
Voting Rights Act Case To Affect California Congressional Districts
Yesterday, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear Bartlett v. Strickland, a Section 2 Voting Rights Act case with potentially major implications for California’s African American members of Congress. The North Carolina case poses the question whether a group that constitutes less than 50 percent of a district’s population can state a vote dilution claim… Continue Reading
Roy Ashburn Proposes Reform
Senator Ashburn proposed a Constitutional Amendment to lump a number of political reforms, including redistricting, into one package. Sen. Ashburn has been a long advocate of redistricting reform and was an author of SCA 3 in 2006, the reform measure that passed the Senate but was held up in the Assembly. The LA Times article… Continue Reading