The rigged game of redistricting

[The Northerner]

(CNN) -- Across the country, state legislatures are debating redistricting right now. It's a once-a-decade proposition: the opportunity and obligation to redraw political district lines to reflect the latest census.

The problem is that the system is rigged -- politicians choose their voters, instead of voters choosing their politicians. The result is the rise of "safe seats" designed to drive the real election away from the all access general election to low-turnout, closed partisan primaries. It amounts to an end-run around democracy.

The bottom line is this: If you're frustrated with the bitter polarization afflicting American politics, you should be pushing for redistricting reform right now.

Redistricting -- also known as "Gerrymandering" (the title of a great documentary of on the subject ) -- has a long and sordid history in America, but lately it has gotten much worse. There was the infamous Tom DeLay-driven, mid-decade Texas redistricting that was designed to drive Democrats out of office. But it's a bipartisan problem: In 2005, the influential Democratic Speaker of the Massachusetts State House Tom Finneran plead guilty to obstruction of justice after accusations that he manipulated redistricting efforts.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/05/13/avlon.redistricting/?hpt=Sbin

[liberal N proud]

1. Gerrymandering should be illegal

This is how they hold on to seats and kill those they really detest.

[Sal Minella]

2. Don't know how we got so lucky, but Iowa has a non-partisan

Redistricting Panel that draws new districts as fairly as possible, and then the Legislature votes to accept or reject the suggested boundaries for the new districts. If rejected, the panel tries again.

This year we had to go from five districts to four, and the job was done so equitably that both the House (Republican majority) and Senate (Dem majority) accepted the new districts on the first vote.

Wish all states could have this painless and fair a process. That horror show that took place in Texas was a national disgrace.

[SheilaT]

3. Drawing districts is harder than it looks.

About thirty years ago I was taking a geography class, and one of our assignments was to draw new districts somewhere. I no longer remember if we were working with real districts, or something hypothetical. I do know we had the numbers of registered voters by precinct, but I can't recall if we knew what the political party affiliation numbers were. Just trying to create districts that were as correct as possible by numbers of voters was surprisingly tricky, and I think I didn't know party affiliations, because I seem to recall thinking how tempting it would be to create a district that favored one party over the other.