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Propose Amendments to the Constitution All the ideas and discussions
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Change congressional redistricting

The original "sin" is that the power to redistrict belongs to state legislatures. An amendment to the constitution could provide a new method of establishing congressional districts that requires the governor of each state to appoint a redistricting committee comprising representatives of all parties, as well as independent voters, and also sets out guidelines for redistricting. for example, it could say that the commission should seek out maximum contiguity of districts (algorithms are available to help and have been known for 40 years), subject only to natural barriers such as rivers.

Judy Wagner , 19.05.2012, 15:59
Idea status: under consideration

Comments

stefan_stackhouse, 18.06.2012, 16:01
Perhaps something to the effect that any person may submit for consideration a redistricting plan. All plans will be scored, both on the degree to which they depart from perfect equality (all districts within state have the same population) and on the degree to which they depart from perfect "compactness" (i.e., the shortest periphery proportional to area), with both factors given equal weight. The plan with the best score must be adopted.

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