Gerrymander-Lite

The original Gerry-mander, Massachusetts, 1812

This November, we can vote on an amendment to the Ohio Constitution which would change the way we draw House and Senate districts for the Ohio legislature.  In our current set-up, the majority party can draw ten-year redistricitng maps to suit itself, and the minority party can pound salt.

The amendment would give the minority party some small leverage.  It would establish a seven-member Redistricitng Commission which would have at least two minority party members.  If all seven would agree to a new map, the districts would be good for ten years.  But if it were not unanimous, the map would last just four years.

It would be a minor improvement, but an improvement nonetheless -- an outrageously partisan gerrymandering job (like what we have now) would be up for review in four years, not ten.  (Unfortunately, it's not the big-idea, genuine reform of the 12-appointed-member, non-partisan, judicially-supervised commission stupidly rejected by Ohio voters in 2012.)

It's baby steps, but we should approve the amendment, I guess.  Such is politics.  Believe it or not, it has a lot of bipartisan support.

I still like Buster's simple approach for federal redistricitng, suggested in this post from 2011:

http://bustergammons.blogspot.com/2011/09/buster-takes-on-redistricting.html