Every ten years states are required to re-draw their legislative districts to account for population changes. The re-drawing is done by the same legislators who run for office in those districts. If that sounds fishy, it’s because it is.
Imagine an inmate who gets to draw the blueprint to his own jail cell. Do we trust him to have integrity, and to design his cell for maximum security? No, we have someone else do it, because his temptation to act in his own self-interest is apparent.
Political redistricting presents the same problem. If I’m the party in power, I’ll use redistricting to make re-election easier for me, and harder for my opponents. This is easy to do thanks to widely available voting data. Out of 15 precincts in my district, 3 never vote for me. Let’s just put them into another district.
You can’t eliminate politics from redistricting entirely, but that’s not the goal. The goal is to eliminate the blatant conflict of interest that allows legislators to hand-pick who their constituents will be. This process leads to less competitive elections, less capable legislators, and bad public policy.
Unfortunately, the only ones who can change the system are the same legislators who are most benefited by it. Any bets on how soon they’ll get around to it?
Does this mean @Bagyants is back to political blogging? I can only hope so.
