Gerrymandering and a cure for it

Something for the 'Left Behind'
Entry for May 12, 2007

In my previous discussions I have advocated allowing voters in congressional districts to 'swap their ballots' with voters in another district by producing ballots on demand at all polling places. There still remained the situation of voters who, for whatever reason, would not avail themselves of this option. How do we prevent them from being gerrymandered to advantage certain candidates? The following would appear to be a solution. It is compatible with Voter Choice of Districts and, as I see it, both together are superior to either alone. Full details can be seen using the link below to rangevoting.org My recommendation does not yet extend to the idea of range voting itself -- yet. I am still studying that.

Gerrymandering and a cure for it – the shortest splitline algorithm (executive summary)

1. Gerrymandering in 2006 USA is enormous and pervasive. It appears to be more severe than in any other major democracy.
2. Gerrymandering can lead to near-permanent 1-party domination and essentially eliminate voter choice.
3. A simple cure is to draw all districts with the "shortest splitline algorithm" involving approximately-bisecting a state's population with the shortest eligible splitting line.
4. This way all districts have simple shapes, are completely unbiased, are easily independently checked, and you don't have to trust anybody.
5. Experimental fact: "Independent" and "bi-partisan" district-drawing commissions often do not work to stop gerrymandering.

http://rangevoting.org/GerryExec.html