[Magdalen] Gerrymandering was Canada's election

[Grace Cangialosi]

To Jay's comment I can only say Amen, and again Amen! VA has some of the weirdest shaped districts you can imagine.

> On Oct 20, 2015, at 11:10 AM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Sibyl, if you don't think it's gerrymandering, you ain't seen
> Virginia.....especially the Virginia 2nd. The whole thing has been ordered
> redrawn.
> 
>> On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 11:58 PM, Sibyl Smirl <polycarpa3 at ckt.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 10/19/15 9:02 PM, Scott Knitter wrote:
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 8:27 PM, Kristin Rollins <kristin at verumsolum.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> My favorite for a long time has been Tobique-Mactaquac.
>>> 
>>> Love it.
>>> 
>>> I think our congressional districts are numbered to allow for
>>> gerrymandering.
>> 
>> Scott, I don't think that it's so much gerrymandering as simple
>> redistricting (which can be perverted to gerrymandering, making very
>> interesting map mathematical geometrics).  But districts are supposed to
>> have roughly equal population numbers, which in a state like Kansas, with
>> two big cities, Wichita and Kansas City, and mostly rural land area, can be
>> very interesting and problematic indeed.  And populations shift all the
>> time.  The very odd shapes a district can get, to make a majority of one
>> party, determined by demographics, in some favored congressperson's
>> "district", probably very odd shapes in a place like the Chicago area which
>> is notorious for that sort of political maneuver, is the Gerrymander (the
>> label inspired by someone saying that the map of a district which had been
>> redistricted to be safe for a congressperson named Gerry, looked like a
>> salamander.)
>> 
>> 
>> I mean, our 9th district here would have a name like
>>> Evanston-Skokie-Edgewater-Uptown-Lake View-Lincolnwood-Des
>>> Plaines-Mount Prospect-Arlington Heights. And the next redistricting
>>> could change more than half of those localities. Can't even name it
>>> "North Shore" because it reaches way west in a U shape and down a
>>> narrow leg to pick up our part of Chicago in addition to the rather
>>> posh but not ultra-posh North Shore burbs. So the neighborhood just
>>> west of us is not in our district, but Arlington Heights, which takes
>>> two hours to get to via public transport, is in our district.
>> 
>> --
>> Sibyl Smirl
>> I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
>> mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net
>>