Gerrymander Contest

public domain ^ | Jeff B.

[Down South]

Wow, that one collection looks like Rorshach blots...

New York's 12th looks like a puppy jumping

Illinois 4th looks like someone spitting in 2 directions at once.

Louisiana's 4th looks like smoke coming out of a firecracker

Texas 30th looks like guy wearing a helmet, who lost all 4 limbs in a motorcycle crash. (With a stream of blood.)

Texas' 29th looks like a stumpy dragon, facing left.

Florida's 3rd looks like Tarzan swinging on a vine.

NC's 12th looks like a drop of black food coloring in milk.

Georgia's 12th looks like a monster with a tree on its nose. and on its back.

[supercat]

I wonder how hard it would be to codify some reasonable rules to limit things to reasonable shapes. To be sure, even that would allow some creative cartography, but it would limit how outrageous things could get. I'd like to see congressional districts required to be convex (except at state boundaries) and legislative districts be convex (except at county boundaries).

[Rockinfreakapotamus]

The root problem, as is evident from the graphics on this thread, is that congressional districts are allowed to cross county lines. In my home state, they are not allowed to. Even so, there were over TWENTY DIFFERENT plans by the West Virginia state legislature for alterations to the congressional districts to accomodate population shifts.

The plan that was deemed least disruprive to the current configuration was chosen - one county from D2 (Gilmer) was ceded north to D1, and a second county (Nicholas) from D2 was ceded south to D3. IMHO, since county lines cannot be crossed in WV, they should have examined the aspect ratios (width:height) of the three districts in each configuration and selected the plan with the lowest sum or average aspect ratio, i.e. the plan with the "squarest" districts. This would address your "convex" idea.

Again, let me reiterate that the root cause of this mess is that many states allow congressional districts to cross county lines (I guess then along precinct boundaries) and the politicians then mix race into this to make a big mess. I suppose this is necessary in high population urban areas, but IMHO should not be allowed elsewhere.

[supercat]

Again, let me reiterate that the root cause of this mess is that many states allow congressional districts to cross county lines (I guess then along precinct boundaries) and the politicians then mix race into this to make a big mess. I suppose this is necessary in high population urban areas, but IMHO should not be allowed elsewhere.

Well, there are some cities that cross county lines; I see nothing wrong with allowing a district to do so if it stays within the city boundaries near the 'crossover' point. Not sure how to best codify such a requirement, though.

On the other hand, I've sometimes wondered what would happen if one were to codify a specific procedure for drawing districts which, given a particular set of census data, would yield a specific deterministic result? Such districts would likely have boundaries which made no logical 'sense', but the goods and bads should pretty well balance out.

[Rockinfreakapotamus]

I think we have a winner - Shiela Jackson Lee's unconstitutional Texas 18th:

[countrydummy]

Thanks for the ping! And we are having all kinds of fun in WV because of the redistricting! The picture of the salamander is great, but it looks like a big crab claw to me! :-)

[Rockinfreakapotamus]

Any of these grab yer fancy, Dummy?:

[VA Advogado]

Is that Corrine Brown's district? The queen of greed?

[VA Advogado]

Georgia 11 definately looks like a RAT and was drawn for a RAT.

[Joan_of_Argghh!]

Is that Corrine Brown's district? The queen of greed?

Yes. Well, she would be queen of greed except she's more qualified for "Queen of Clueless Incompetence."

[copycat]

The root problem, as is evident from the graphics on this thread, is that congressional districts are allowed to cross county lines. In my home state, they are not allowed to.

This needs to be Federal law...