Current Events > It feels like the Federal Government is going hard at Gerrymandering in 2023

(+) Yeah! (+)

How many states have been challenged on this issue this year? Im not an expert on this what so ever but Ive been hearing this issue being brought up in court in multiple states. Ive heard about this issue from Federal Judges in Wisconsin, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina and Georgia? I think? You can see an overall trend.

Love to see it tbh. Looks like this issue is FINALLY being addressed and rapidly at that. Are there any more cases about this Ive missed?

We have Marc Elias and his team of competent lawyers to thank for that. All of us should at least be grateful that there are efforts in saving democracy instead of merely whining that not enough is being done.

Won't they just stall like Ohio did? Now Ohio made the maps even worse for 2024.

Its a joke that gerrymandering has gone on as long as it has.

ExtremeLuchador posted...

Won't they just stall like Ohio did? Now Ohio made the maps even worse for 2024.

Alabama tried that and things didnt go well for them. The judge had to bring in someone themselves to draw the maps since Alabama wanted to be a pain in the ass about it

ExtremeLuchador posted...

Won't they just stall like Ohio did? Now Ohio made the maps even worse for 2024.

There's only so much cheating Republicans can pull off. They cannot fend off multi-pronged attacks against their vile plan to destroy democracy.

https://twitter.com/typo_cat/status/1718726260090978465

DepreceV2 posted...

Alabama tried that and things didnt go well for them. The judge had to bring in someone themselves to draw the maps since Alabama wanted to be a pain in the ass about it

Act like a child, be treated like a child, etc.

Dark_Arbron posted...

Its a joke that gerrymandering has gone on as long as it has.

I legitimately know nothing about how maps should be drawn. Is there some accepted way it should be done so there is as little bias as possible? Seems like either way you're adding people from either side wherever you draw the lines.

KainWind posted...

I legitimately know nothing about how maps should be drawn. Is there some accepted way it should be done so there is as little bias as possible? Seems like either way you're adding people from either side wherever you draw the lines.

Here is an example:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/6/9/AAU0QaAAE_KF.jpg

Not only is 7 only 1 district but you can tell how it was drawn that it was obvious that they are trying to keep certain people in one district. There is no reason that some parts of that district should look like a river cutting through the state

KainWind posted...

I legitimately know nothing about how maps should be drawn. Is there some accepted way it should be done so there is as little bias as possible? Seems like either way you're adding people from either side wherever you draw the lines.

There are a number of different desirable properties that come up in various districting laws. E.g. Nebraska used to want (in order of importance):

1. (roughly) Equal population per district (required by Constitution)
2. Follow county lines as required by Nebraska state constitution
3. Must comply with Voting Rights Act
4. Compact districts
5. Contiguous districts
6. Follow city/village boundaries
7. Follow other political boundaries
8. Create districts with communities of common interest
9. Use easily identifiable boundaries (landmarks, etc.)
10. Create districts with population deviations near zero.
11. People currently holding office can't be gerrymandered out of their district without serving their full term.

So you can see there are a lot of different factors. Part of the problem though is that even among "legal" maps you can follow these rules and still have wildly varying outcomes, at which point you just have a computer churn through possibilities and give yourself the optimal map you can that satisfies those conditions.

What you kind of want to do is use something like simulated annealing to explore the space of valid districtings, because if you set your parameters right the "more natural" districtings are more likely to be chosen and you can have a pre-determined source of randomness so that no one is making any choices.

Bump

If cheating is the only way you can win, then don't bother playing.

ExtremeLuchador posted...

Won't they just stall like Ohio did? Now Ohio made the maps even worse for 2024.

Ohio is stalling with the Ohio Supreme Court. Alabama and Georgia were dealing with the federal judges.

Because election laws are state laws, someone in Ohio (aka "with standing") has to file a federal case arguing that Ohio districting laws violate federal laws.

Bravo to Georgia getting their maps fixed. Go after the Texas maps and voting issues next!

but yeah we need laws on how the maps can drawn.

brestugo posted...

Ohio is stalling with the Ohio Supreme Court. Alabama and Georgia were dealing with the federal judges.

Because election laws are state laws, someone in Ohio (aka "with standing") has to file a federal case arguing that Ohio districting laws violate federal laws.

Ohio voted out two of the Judges against Gerrymandering in 2022.