Question

Is gerrymandering fair? Are there better ways to redistrict? Are there fairer ways to redistrict? Should there be fairer ways to redistrict? Could there realistically be a more objective method of choosing districts

Answer 1

-Redistricting is the redrawing of district lines in states that have more than one representative (Barbour and Wright 246). Gerrymandering is drawing the district lines so it will benefit one group or another. This can lead to strange shapes in the drawing of the lines (Barbour and Wright 246). There are usually three types of gerrymandering: partisan, pro-incumbent, and racial. In partisan gerrymandering is drawing district lines in order to favor one political party. In pro-incumbent gerrymandering is when legislators agree to draw the districts in such a way as to favor the current incumbents because the area is too closely divided that neither party can get an advantage (Barbour and Wright 247).

> Redistricting always creates drama. Every 10 years some number of legislators and congressmen find the new redistricting map draws them out of a job or puts them in a much more precarious position.

> Redistricting is, and always has been, used to gain maximum advantage from the demographics at hand. If only one-third of congressional districts could be competitive under optimum circumstances, perhaps less than 15 percent could be counted on to be consistently competitive in recent years, despite the large amount of partisan turnover lately.

“It could mean greater restrictions on gerrymandering, especially in states with constitutional requirements that must be met. Having a map that demonstrates a better way to achieve those requirements puts pressure on the legislature to conform to those requirements.”

But independent maps are being drawn in an increasing number of states.

>> There’s a lot of debate about how one should define what a “fair” district is. It’s a lot easier to look at some bizarre existing districts and say “OK, that’s wrong” than to define what will make them “right”. And the answers aren’t simple, and people of good faith can and do disagree on many of them.

You need several info to --

-Districts chosen to maximize the power of one party or the other (yes, this is gerrymandering, but it’s one option)

-Districts chosen to level the voting power of both major parties

-Districts that are geometrically compact even if they don’t follow political boundaries