Thinking about Elections

LET'S JUST BAN GERRYMANDERING. Agreed: gerrymandering is bad, but the problem is defining it and measuring it. A map can be evaluated using multiple different measurements, and each one gives a different verdict. Someone still has to rule. Every single measurement can be gamed. Even the composition of “independent commissions” raises questions: how do you prove independence? (Read about Arizona’s commission at the link.) The result is endless court battles.

Says Lee Drutman, “We want partisan fairness (maps should not favor either party). We want competitive districts (we tend to think competition is good). We want compact districts (distended polygons feel like cheating). We want to keep natural communities together (people who live together should vote together!). We want minority communities to be able to elect their candidates of choice (or at least, some of us do; I do).

“The problem is that voters do not equally distribute themselves in perfectly balanced and aesthetically pleasing units of roughly 765,000 people (the going size of a congressional district these days). So choosing where to put the lines means making lots of trade-offs.”

So what’s the solution? In the most brilliant and clear writing I’ve ever seen on this subject, Lee Drutman lays it out. The solution is multi-member districts with proportional representation. Single-member districts cannot achieve the criteria (listed above) we want.

If you care about fair representation but are unfamiliar with multi-member districts and proportional representation, read up on it. It’s the lifeline. It’s not complicated; it’s just different, and that makes people think it’s hard. Many who say the current system just needs a few changes would like you to believe that multi-member districts with proportional representation is too difficult. Don’t be pulled in.

https://leedrutman.substack.com/p/why-you-cant-just-ban-gerrymandering?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=546682&post_id=199369474&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=tsakv&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email