Gerrymandering

[Jonathan Buhacoff]

Proposal:

Voting districts must be established by local governments responsible for administering elections. Incorporated towns and cities will establish their own voting districts. Outside of incorporated cities, the local county, province, or administrative region will establish voting districts within its boundaries.

Voting districts are established for the purpose of collecting votes on election day.

Voting districts do not need to be of equal size or population.

Voting districts must be drawn with a low variance among districts when measuring the distance between each registered voter’s home address and the nearest voting station using bands of equal-width concentric discs around each voting station. Voting districts must be funded with a low variance among districts when measuring the per-voter budget they will receive to administer elections. Voting districts must be planned with a low variance among districts when measuring the number of voters per voting station. Voting districts must be staffed with a low variance among districts when measuring the number of election administrators per voting station. Voting districts must be equipped with a low variance among districts when measuring the number of voting booths or voting machines per voting station.

A new map approved within 6 months of an election day shall not be effective until the first day following the election.

Any registered voter may challenge the voting district boundaries established by their local government.

If a new voting district map is successfully challenged in court, the remedy is to immediately re-instate the previous map.

In an election for positions or ballot questions for a local, regional, state, or federal government, every registered voter within the boundary of the local government participates in the same election for the same elected positions. The voting districts do not determine who registered voters can elect or what ballot questions they can answer.

Intent:

Establish a system of election and representation that prevents the practice of gerrymandering.

Discussion:

Gerrymandering is the manipulation of electoral district boundaries to advantage one political party and allow them to gain or maintain power. It is a form of corruption where the elected representatives choose their voters instead of the voters choosing their elected representatives. See also Wikipedia.

Gerrymandering is possible when 1) politicians are in charge of drawing electoral districts, 2) there is a lack of objective rules about how electoral districts are drawn, 3) there is ineffective enforcement of the rules, and 4) electoral districts affect the outcome of elections.

To eliminate gerrymandering, we need to address each one of these issues:

1. Move the drawing of electoral districts from state-level politicians to local civil servants.

Voting districts must be established by local governments responsible for administering elections. Incorporated towns and cities will establish their own voting districts. Outside of incorporated cities, the local county, province, or administrative region will establish voting districts within its boundaries.

Voting districts are established for the purpose of collecting votes on election day.

See also Voting Districts.

2. Establish objective rules about how electoral districts are drawn.

Voting districts do not need to be of equal size or population. As a part of this proposal, the size and population of a voting district will not affect the outcome of an election.

See also Voting Districts.

3. Establish effective enforcement of the rules.

Voting districts affect the ability of voters to cast their votes on election day and all constituents of the same local government are affected by the outcome of the election. Therefore any voter may bring a challenge to the voting districts established by their local government.

If a new voting district map is successfully challenged in court, the remedy is to immediately re-instate the previous map. This prevents a legislature from attempting to gerrymander districts and when they lose in court simply to provide another gerrymandered map and invite another challenge. The legislature can attempt to draw a new map but it would be an entirely new effort with its own timeline completely separate from the prior effort and challenge.

See also Voting Districts.

4. Change how elections are conducted so that changing the boundaries of electoral districts won’t affect the outcome of elections.

Everyone within the boundaries of the local, regional, or state government votes for the same candidates and ballot measures for local, regional, or state elections. This means regardless of how voting districts are drawn on the map, everyone is voting for the same candidates and therefore the tallies will be the same and the outcome will be the same.

Instead of each constituency voting for a single representative, the constituency votes for multiple representatives and they are allocated legislature votes proportional to their popular support. This will bring an end to someone who earned only 51% of the vote pretending like they speak for everyone in their constituency when they vote a certain way in the legislature. Instead, there will be someone who earned 51% of the vote speaking for their voters, and someone who earned 49% of the vote speaking for their voters, and everyone will be represented.

In an election for positions in a local or state government, every registered voter within the boundary of the local or state government participates in the same election for the same elected positions. The voting districts do not determine who registered voters can elect.

See also: Local Elections, Voting Districts.

For elections of representatives in a legislature, instead of fixing the number of representatives in the legislature, we must fix the number of total votes. A candidate can then earn a percentage of the available votes in the legislature proportional to the number of voters who elected that candidate in the election. This ensures that voters are represented by someone of their choice regardless of the voting district boundaries. It prevents urban or rural voters from being under-represented in the legislature. It creates the ability to have better diversity of perspectives in the legislature that more accurately represents the will of the voters.

See also: State Elections, Voting Districts Representation in the Legislature.

In an election for positions in the legislature of the federal government, every registered voter within the boundary of the state government participates in the same election for the same elected positions. If the federal government has adopted a vote allocation system, the candidates earn a percentage of the state’s vote allocation. If the federal government has not yet adopted a vote allocation system, the candidates earn one of the available seats for that state in the federal legislature. Because each candidate who earns a seat represents all the voters from that state who voted for them, every major segment of the state population has an opportunity to elect someone to represent them in the federal legislature.

See also: Federal Elections, Representation in the Legislature.

Positions in other branches of the federal government are elected by the federal legislature. When this proposal is adopted and the federal legislature is comprised of representatives who reflect the will of the voters without gerrymandering, it can represent them faithfully in electing federal officials and it can be done in the same room (the federal legislature) in one day without the threat of voter fraud affecting federal elections.

See also: Federal Elections.

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