Which State has the Most Gerrymandered Districts?

[kpete]

Which State has the Most Gerrymandered Districts?
Posted at 7:50 a.m. today


Christopher Ingraham: The point of gerrymandering is to “give your opponents a small number of safe seats, while drawing yourself a larger number of seats that are not quite as safe, but that you can expect to win comfortably.”

“The compactness of a district — a measure of how irregular its shape is, as determined by the ratio of the area of the district to the area of a circle with the same perimeter — can serve as a useful proxy for how gerrymandered the district is. Districts that follow a generally regular shape tend to be compact, while those that have a lot of squiggles and offshoots and tentacle-looking protuberances tend to score poorly on this measure.”

“I calculated compactness scores for each of the districts of the 113th Congress and mapped them so you can see where the least compact — and likely most-gerrymandered –districts are.”

North Carolina comes out near the top with three of the ten most gerrymandered districts.





http://wonkwire.rollcall.com/2014/05/19/state-gerrymandered-districts/

[liberal N proud]

1. North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York followed closely by Kentucky

That is my observation.

Personal experience, here in Ohio it is absolutely insane how some of the districts were drawn just to drive certain candidates out of office.

[hrmjustin]

3. New Yorkwas done by a judge. We have severL competitive seats this year.

[hrmjustin]

2. PA, OH, and NC.

[FBaggins]

4. NC & MD

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/05/15/americas-most-gerrymandered-congressional-districts/

[LonePirate]

5. As suspected, the vast majority of gerrymandered districts are in states with Repub control

The 2020 census and elections cannot come soon enough to fix these travesties. The higher turnout will prevent another 2010 disaster.

[CrispyQ]

6. That was fascinating.

There was a lot there I didn't know.

Contrary to one popular misconception about the practice, the point of gerrymandering isn't to draw yourself a collection of overwhelmingly safe seats. Rather, it's to give your opponents a small number of safe seats, while drawing yourself a larger number of seats that are not quite as safe, but that you can expect to win comfortably.

[Fred Sanders]

8. WTF is wrong with Americans? By what great evil are these twisted, tortured districts out up

with? Why not a single national media outlet does not point this out, simply by a graphic of the gerrymandered districts is another great crime and perversion of democracy.

[Bandit]

7. Unless Democrats win Majorities in those state Legislatures by 2020 nothing will change

The ONLY way to redraw the lines is by having the Majority after the 2020 Census. Because of the gerry amndered Districts that will be a real challenge. It probab ly will only get worse instead of better.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

9. I prefer the ratio of the incircle to the circumcircle as a measure.

I think that a roughly-circular district with finely-zigzagged edges (which will have a high ratio of perimeter to area, but contain a circle nearly as large as the largest circle that contains it) is not as big a warning sign as a very long, thin district (which will need a much larger circle to hold it than it can be fitted into).

[hobbit709]

10. When Tom DeLay and the TX Lege tried to get rid of Lloyd Doggett

The joke was that his new district was 2 blocks wide and 300 miles long.
Then they tried running a woman using her Hispanic maiden name(which she never used until then) against him in a district running down to the Valley from Austin.
Funny thing was Lloyd speaks fluent Spanish and she didn't.

[starroute]

11. Pennsylvania yields to no one in the blatant insanity department

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania%27s_congressional_districts

[tabbycat31]

12. What about the NC district that's the width of an interstate?

[KamaAina]

14. It's not even an interstate

it's U.S. Highway 29. That one is the result of one of the few legitimate uses of gerrymandering: to create a majority African American CD.

[Takket]

13. There should be a constitutional amendment

that defines specifically how the districts are drawn. gerrymandering disenfranchises the public. it is a sickening practice that no one seems to even know about.

[otohara]

15. Who Knew - Voting Matters In Midterms

especially when the year ends in 00.

When will we Dems ever learn?

[IronLionZion]

16. Dems will never learn anything ever

Many Americans from both parties are in a punitive mood and Dems are just easier to punish.

[Jim Lane]

17. Pardon the nitpick, but a midterm year never ends in 00.

Your fundamental point of the importance of midterms is of course correct, and especially so when the year ends in 0 (as I assume you meant to say).

Still, I don't think it's a matter of learning. Some demographic groups that are good for us, notably young people, tend to be slack about voting. With an attention-grabbing Presidential race at the top of the ticket, they'll show up, but otherwise they're iffy. That's likely to be the case for the foreseeable future.

[Art_from_Ark]

18. Another thing about mid-terms is that

only 2/3 of the states will have elections for US Senate, and many Congressional districts may have just token opposition or even uncontested races. That means in some districts, there might not be any elections at the national level. That can reduce enthusiasm for voting among all but the most hard-core voting groups.

[otohara]

20. Opps, I Knew That

I meant to type one 0.

[JHB]

19. "Year ends in 00"?

1900, 2000, 2100?

You may be off by an order of magnitude.