Would giving voters the power to vote for multiple representatives solve gerrymandering?

[jmowreader]

All of us here are in agreement that gerrymandering is a bad thing and has to be fixed. I think giving the voters the power to vote for more than one of them would solve the problem. The Constitution details how representatives are apportioned but is mute on how to vote for them, so from a constitutional standpoint this works.

How this plan works:

I shall first state that no voter should be asked to vote for more than ten of these assholes. If Texas, New York or California were to ask their electorate to vote for every congressman the state has to offer, you'd get to about number 25 and say, "screw it." Ten is a reasonable number.

We retain congressional districts, and retain the idea that someone who represents a district should come from it. But thanks to gerrymandering, there are some weird-ass districts out there - take North Carolina's 8th, which is 180 miles long by about 20 miles wide.

If your state has ten, or fewer, congressional districts the voter will find all of them on the ballot.

If your state has more than ten districts, you vote for the ten congressmen whose districts are closest to you.

[Thinkingabout]

1. The gerrymandering deal should go away. In Texas the lines drawn is probably like the

Ones in NC. The lines was drawn to place two Democrat representatives in the same district so one would have to go and new lines had enough registered repukes in them to elect a representative. Tom Delay was the one to head up the redrawing of lines in Texas, dirty rotten dog. Crazy Cruz was elected statewide so the gerrymandering did not play a part in his election. Why intelligent judges accepts the gerrymandering is beyond me if they was doing a proper job.

[DURHAM D]

5. Are Texas judges elected?

[Thinkingabout]

6. Most are elected.

[davidn3600]

2. Federal government has no constitutional authority to force states to do that

It's a check on federal power. Allowing the federal government to meddle into how a state elects its representatives would be a violation of state rights. The fear is that the federal government would rig the system to get a desired election result.

Gerrymandering is simply a flaw of our system of government. It's one of those things where we probably can't really fix it without creating even bigger problems. Our founding fathers never really accounted for it because there was no way they could predict that America was going to divide itself between two political parties and that one of those parties would be able to game the system.

Our founders were smart men that put in place some very good things concerning our system of government. However, they were bound to miss something...gerrymandering is it.

[CK_John]

3. This would require a change in the constitution which set the fountion of the House

to represent a certain number of indivuals that is set by the 10yr census count.

I doubt the gerrymanders would vote for a change.

[DURHAM D]

4. This problem is a result of the fact that Democrats did not turn out in 2010.

Our next opportunity is 2020. Meanwhile, the Democratic party needs to get organized and take over state legislatures and governor's offices as that is who decides how to draw the districts.

This is not the fault of the founders or a flaw in the constitution. It is the fault of disorganized Democrats focusing money and efforts primarily on the top of the ticket every four years. Gerrymandering happens when there is a lack of attention to local and state elections.

[jmowreader]

7. In 2010 it was also a "pony" problem

Since Democrats didn't get their pony in the 2008-2010 half of Obama's first term, they stayed home and teabaggers turned out in droves. Result: Teabagger Ted, Teabagger Rand...hell, almost all the clinically-insane people in Congress now (yes, I know Michele Bachmann was already in office then)...and a House of Representatives that names post offices and attempts to repeal legislation over and over and over and over.