Warum reden angesichts all der Prop 50- und „Gerrymandering Bad“-Rhetorik nicht mehr Menschen über die absolute Abscheulichkeit der Kongressbezirkskarte meines Heimatstaats Illinois? Es ist nicht einmal so, dass dies alt ist, dies ist die aktuellste Version und wurde 2021 neu gezeichnet, teilweise aufgrund der Tatsache, dass Illinois keinen „Bezirk mit schwarzer Mehrheit“ mehr hatte.
Von ChitownLittle
25 Kommentare
I think a lot of people have talked about Illinois?
It’s probably the first state that comes to my mind whenever someone says „gerrymandering“, partly because I hear Illinois brought up with it all the time.
Princeton Gerrymandering Project : Poor grade
Just add a slice of Chicago to these rural areas and drown out the GOP vote, perfect
Illinois and North Carolina – the states of gerrymandering
? People talk about Illinois being gerrymandered all the time. It’s like one of the big examples. If you’re curious why people don’t bring it up more right now is because currently there are bigger matters with gerrymandering like texas doing it in the middle of a cycle to secure a few more votes at the bidding of dear leader.
Long live the multi-member party list
After looking at this map, I had a snap idea on how to curb some gerrymandering and I’m curious what you all think:
Create a mathematical relationship between the perimeter and the area of the districts. In other words, for a given area (sq miles) enclosed by the perimeter of a district, define a maximum allowable perimeter length. This could prevent some districts being drawn such as the light blue at the top left where it’s mostly perimeter and little area.
The reason why is because it benefits the democrats. This wasn’t a response to Texas, this existed before. They are happy to have it as long as it helps their side. Same for the republicans too.
It’s too bad America will never abolish this insane concept of districts that have no geographic or cultural coherency lol. It’s no wonder elections are always so close, the whole system is set up to create this precisely 50/50 divide.
But yeah, for geography nerds, district maps are annoying because they are arbitrary and exist only for corruption, it’s kind of like an insult to maps and geography lol. It would be cool to have district maps that had cultural or geographic coherency and then admire those haha and the actual voters would have representation that actually reflected their region.
Like how are you going to competently represent an area that is completely artificial and not based on anything real other than political maneuvering. It’s kinda fucked.
Both parties have been gerrymandering states for a while; Texas was just as bad even before the recent change.
The reason it became a talking point recently is because Texas is trying to redistrict „off-cycle,“ i.e. not in response to new census data. That is out of the norm even for gerrymanders, and is why other states are trying to respond in kind.
There’s also a chance the Supreme Court fully eviscerates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in one of their pending cases, which would remove the „majority black district“ requirements and let a bunch of southern states redo their maps accordingly.
I’m so happy my country doesn’t have this problem.
Here comes all the comments hidden warriors to attack democrats over something they openly advocate for in their own state.
Because Illinois is (D)ifferent?
Didn’t dems try to pass a bill to ban all gerrymandering and it was shot down by the GOP? That tells me all I need to know.
Can anyone explain like I’m dumb why we don’t just grid it out and do it like that? Let the votes fall where they may? Is it because they figured out how to game this system and don’t want to change? I’m so tired of politics just being one big game of „Fucked Ya First!“
Oh come on man.
Call me crazy, but this looks plenty gerrymandered
I don’t think it’s as bad as you’re implying. There are a lot of noncontiguous shapes, but that’s partly because so much of the state is organized around Chicago. Like the 11th’s C shape looks very artificial, but it can reasonably be described as „outer suburbs“. Even if Elgin and Aurora aren’t exactly close to each other, they have a lot in common because they’re both about 40 miles from the loop. Or the 17th could be described as „2-3 hours from Chicago“ even if Peoria and Rockford don’t have much else in common. Their distance from Chicago is important.
The 13th is pretty bad though. No real reason to connect St. Louis suburbs to Champaign besides partisanship.
Democrats have supported a nationwide ban on gerrymandering, guess which party is against it?
I support gerrymandering reform but ultimately it has to be done nationally or not at all. As long is it’s done state by state, you’re going to have one side unilaterally disarming while the other side plays a game of corruption.
And to note, the only national party that supports national gerrymandering reform is the Democratic Party.
I lived a mile or so from downtown Rockford, and on my corner, we had one rep, and the other three houses had a different one. Us on the northeast side of a random corner in a residential neighborhood definitely have different interests than the house 20 feet away!
Shout out to Geography King on YouTube who covered this very well
It’s the poster child for a Democratic gerrymander. People talk about it often. The reason people aren’t fighting to get it drawn normally is because there are more states with Republican gerrymanders. Just look to the north for an example. States like Wisconsin are why people aren’t making a big deal about Illinois. And for those who aren’t aware, this map was made 5 years ago. Consider it a response to North Carolina.
I think a major reason it’s not being discussed in the press and Reddit is because… and I’ll be downvoted to hell and gone… it’s because of gerrymandering helps the Democrats.
I remember reading articles in the Wall Street Journal about this issue back in the 80s. But non-conservative outlets do not care until after 1994 when the Republicans started taking over state houses.
because it (D)ifferent