Lots of talk has been given to the partisan evil known as gerrymandering. Many states...No, MOST states do it. Sometimes there are virtuous reasons, like carving out districts to give minorities representation. Other times its a way of carving up minority districts so that they no longer have representation. I favor an approach that creates districts that cluster constituents together along existing political subdivisions. For me, you start at the county level, then go to the township, municipality and then neighborhood respecting transportation corridors. Districts should be compact, logical, and accessible to all of the constituents. Once a district is drawn, the representative's first office needs to be geographically centralized, with satellite offices placed at the representative's discretion. This is democracy, after all.
Translating that into one example, I have taken North Carolina's currently gerrymandered districts and redrawn them into more geographically reasonable configurations.
The top map shows the current districts drawn with the 2010 census data. The lower map is my creation based on the same census data.
In the current map, great care was taken to carve up the state to minimized Democrat Party seats. My drawing paid no attention to this concern. I have no idea where partisan affiliation lies in the Tar Heal State, nor should it matter against drawing district lines.
My next step will be to explore the ramifications of my choices against the current political make-up of the state's congressional delegation.
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