Redistricting –As It Should Be Done
There is a great deal of consternation and frustration in the media over redistricting of political voting districts. The consternation comes from the fact that voting districts are being drawn to favor one political ideology over another. Since Republicans control the majority of state legislators, this effort has become a means to define voting district boundaries so as to disenfranchise non-Republican voters and to create self sustaining majorities that virtually ensure Republican representation ad infinitum. If the situation were reversed in terms of state legislative control, then Democrats would surely like to accomplish the same objective.
There is a simple method to eliminate gerrymandering and to ensure equality of representation in districts. This method has been largely ignored because it only serves justice and fairness and not a political ideology. However, the time has come to adopt a national standard that is fair to all parties concerned and, which eliminates the inequities of our current system.
As an exemplary model, consider the figure of Colorado, shown in the title block. Colorado has 7 congressional districts that are as corrupted as they are in virtually every other state of the union. Colorado is the best example of how to arrive at fair and transparent redistricting as any other state because it is a rectangle and therefore can be understood easiest.
Since districts are based on census population data, we can establish 100% equal districts by combining simple geometry with an analysis of the number of voters contained in a geometric sector by simply determining the number of voters in a resulting map sector. It is not as complicated as it sounds.
Disclaimer: the map shown in the figure is not precisely mathematically accurate. It is simply an illustrative example. Definitive engineering algorithms would determine the actual map sectors.
First, we determine the approximate geometric center of every state. For Colorado, this point is slightly north and west of Pikes Peak. A line is drawn at true North. The make up of each sector is simply the population of the entire state divided by its number of congressional districts. In the case of Colorado, that is seven. The algorithm simply creates an arc moving clockwise until the arc contains 1/7 of the state’s population. The second arc also contains 1/7 of the population. This process is continued until the state is divided into 7 equal districts.
Since the districts are drawn arbitrarily according to the population density they tend to be diverse. For instance, the districts labeled 1-7 in the figure actually comprise urban centers as well as the completely rural parts of the state. Shouldn’t every district encompass whatever particular demographic exists in each state? This system does precisely that. It does not discriminate between “urban” and “rural” interests.
This system of district creation is completely free of partisan bias. Nether party gets to draw the lines arbitrarily. Mathematical models and census data create them. Nothing else.
The models can easily be updated each census year simply by moving the sector lines to capture the population density changes that have occurred. It works for every state regardless of geometry, shape, or size.