http://www.redistrictinggame.org)

This is a new game that allows you to play as a mapper, and gerrymander/redistrict the seats for the House of Represnatives to help the Democratic/Republican party out. It's a very fun and political game. And it raises the issue of gerrymandering reform, presenting ideas of letting an indepedent committe decide boundaries. I recommend it.

The reason I posted this topic is, well, that game is biased towards reform. Now, I want to hear viewpoints that are against this sort of reform, because I know they exist, and that, in the end, I don't like bias, either for or against any sort of idea. My state actually did some redistrciting reform after a little referendum. I know 44% was against it, so there has to be some great arguments against this propsal. I know there are a lot of viewpoints, liberal and conservatives on this here forum, so I hope somehow there can be a defense of why the current system works, because I really want to know why the current system works. I'm not sure putting an indepedent committee is going to change much, and I like having political parties decide...after all, if you take away the parties (run by liberals and conservatives, aka, the people who live in the USA) decide what to do...then you take away the right of the people to decide...But my fears are vague, and I need to figure out any opposition.

Well, first obvious question is: what constitutes an "independent" voice in your opinion?

Well, first obvious question is: what constitutes an "independent" voice in your opinion?

Uh. One who randomly draw lines on the graph without any regard to who lives there and what political party they belong to?

Yeah, but who do you REALLY trust to be able to do that? Otherwise, you don't really need to have any committee. Just get the two (or more) parties into a room w/a dartboard (or any random chance type device) and let them have at it, with all agreeing ahead of time to abide by the decisions of fate regardless of the outcome. :p

Hey, congrats on the 666th post, Toten.

On some websites, they state that all you really need is just a computer to randomly generate such maps (hence sastifiying the random chance device), but then there are some arguments that the computer isn't really fair, and that it violates gerrymandering/redistricting that is mandated by law, like majority/minoirty districts.

For the basis of the discussion, let's assume that said indepedent commitee would actually be indepedent. :)

Assuming for the sake of argument you could round these people up, it still looks like you might have to rewrite the laws before you can proceed to redraw the lines. If you jettison the requirements for minority and majority districts, then it seems the only thing you'd have to look at would be the population figures for a given area and start drawing from there. Factoring in things like race, religion, income, etc.. would likely skew the results in one direction or the other.

Funny thing about the 666, stopping there would have been almost visually in line with the avatar. :p