Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Gerrymandering Update
As was stated before, gerrymandering is an obstruction of responsiveness on the part of congressmen on all issues, including environmental ones.Yesterday, anti-gerrymandering initiatives were defeated in both California and Ohio. In California, Schwarzenegger was pushing for reform. It seems that he pushed labor too far there and they responded by rejecting everything, even measures that are arguably in their best self-interests. In Ohio, it was the Democrats trying for reform. The "complexity of the ballot language" is one proposed reason for the initiative failing.
From Slate:
Anti-gerrymandering reform lost in both California and Ohio. You might say it's time to take the fight to the courts--and there are valid constitutional arguments to be made, along Baker v. Carr lines, against partisan or pro-incumbent gerrymanders. But isn't it kind of difficult to argue that the courts need to intervene to make democracy fair after the voters, in a perfectly fair, non-gerrymandered state-wide election, have rejected the idea? This doesn't seem like a case of minority rights, where the majority's opinion shouldn't count. The vast majority of California voters are denied the chance to cast an effective ballot because they live in manipulated districts where the incumbent can't lose. They don't seem to care! Who are judges to tell them they should?
In this sense, the pro-reform movement is arguably worse-off than if the voters had never been asked.
Further down the same page, under Yes on 77:
... If voters don't want district lines drawn by politicians, or by retired judges, maybe we shouldn't have them drawn by anybody. Specifically, why not let computers draw them. My colleague Robert Wright has suggested a John Rawls-like protocol, in which the two parties operating behind a veil of ignorance agree on the parameters to feed into a redistricting computer, and also agree to abide by the results. Let Maptitude do it! It's so high-tech it might appeal to Californians in a way geriatric judges don't. ...
[Emphasis in original.]
This can potentially discourage other areas from pushing reform initiatives.
UPDATE: Florida also has a vote coming up on redistricting reform.