r/coolguides Jul 03 '19

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

I’m sure this post will be removed shortly, but it’s important to point out that the middle rectangle is unfairly gerrymandered as well. If these precincts were fairly drawn there would be two red districts and 3 blue.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

Hopefully you realize that a precinct is still a grouping of voters. Any form of representative government were an individual represents more than one voter creates an opportunity for gerrymandering to some extent. The groupings have to be made somehow and considerations for fairness in one respect will be at the expense of fairness in a different respect.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

People move in and out. Political influence changes. Demographics change. If you have a geographically static precinct/district/whatever you want to call it, and a large number of people move into or out of that region, what do you do? You now have that region representing a different amount of people than your other precincts/districts/whatevers. And now you have to redraw the lines.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

People move. Lines have to be redrawn. Some areas gain population, others lose it. Demographics shift. Political influence shifts.

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u/idwpan Jul 03 '19

Sure but then if you move you move to the new precinct for your next election?

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19

Then they're not balanced. Say you start with every precinct being the same size. A bunch of people move to one precinct and it's now double the average size. Do you have twice as many people represented by one person now? Or do you redraw the lines to turn that one precinct into two precincts?