[Magdalen] Gerrymandering was Canada's election

[Esther Williamson]

I heartily agree with Jay and Grace.

Esther

On 10/20/2015 12:17 PM, Grace Cangialosi wrote:
> 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
>>>