Wisconsin: PETITION: Get Politics OUT of Redistricting

[Scuba]

http://www.unitedwisconsin.com/petition-get-politics-out-of-redistricting

It is time for Wisconsin to pass badly-needed reforms to take the drawing of electoral maps out of the hands of politicians.

Earlier this year, a group of Democratic legislators finally said enough is enough, and introduced a common-sense bill that would place the redistricting power in the hands of the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Under their proposal, politicians would no longer have the power to carve out “safe” districts for their party, thus bringing more competition to our elections, and ensuring your vote isn’t being marginalized for partisans ends.

But Republican legislators are dragging their feet – and worse, some are even threatening to squash any attempt at reform and keep politicians in charge of drawing the district lines that can shape the outcome of elections.

With all the scandal and dirty tricks that marked the last redistricting session, it is clearly time for Wisconsin voters to hear about ways to reform this broken and corrupt system. And with the next legislative session just around the corner, Wisconsin voters deserve a fair public hearing before any action to kill this bill is taken.

Petition at the link; thanks to all who sign!!!

[Ed Suspicious]

1. They must be terribly confident in their ability to carve out and keep their districts. I mean

we're not redistricting for another 7-8 years. They must truly believe democrats will not hold a majority at that time.

[Scuba]

2. Or they trust the Democratic leadership to leave the R advantage in place.

Our State Party leaders appear to be wolves wearing sheep's clothing.

[Ed Suspicious]

3. Signed.

[HereSince1628]

4. The algorithm for producing districts with equal population areas and smallest perimeters

isn't all that hard.

In the interest of a gerrymander free state, a computer could produce 3 'best' maps with such districts and the legislature would have to accept one of them.

The advantage to such districts is forced integration of r's and d's. That would advantage politicians who appealled to voters from both parties, i.e. politicians who based decisions on the structure of their districts rather than Koch endorsed positions distributed in ALEC white papers.