The Redistricting Game

This, via Tom Lee is pretty amusing. I'd actually be extremely interested in playing a similar game that was based around actual state level data. I bet something like that would also have a much clearer emotional impact.

Comments

I suppose I might have guessed that somewhere somebody would be wonky enough to actually want to play a game about redistricting.

Call me old-fashioned, but that sounds like the dullest Saturday night ever.

Posted by serial catowner | June 19, 2007 4:34 PM

Yeah, but it makes for an amusing lunch hour.

MY is right - without being based on actual data, it's a short-lived curiosity. With actual state data, every man is his own Delay.

Posted by SDM | June 19, 2007 5:34 PM

I give the game more credit than the other commetators. You have to play around with the final two scenarios (also, the first two scenarios are buggy).

The voting rights scenario shows that one of the effects of creating a majority minority district, in the context of the current redistricting system, is to increase the likelihood of funny district lines. That is because politicians can't spread around members of the minority group to create a favorable map, and have to compensate to protect favored congressmen. This seems to have actually happened in Georgia and North Carolina with the Democrats, and in South Florida with the Republicans, so its a valid point.

The final scenario shows a flaw in Tanner's plan -for a redistricing proposal to pass the proposed independent commission, it may have to be partisan, as long as the resulting lines are ridiculous. That is because the best chance for it to pass would be for it to be supported by one of the parties plus the chairperson. The resulting map would look something like the map in Tanner's home state of Tennessee, which is a Democratic gerrymander that still has fairly compact districts. However, this is still a big improvemetn over the situation in the rest of the country.

I also agree that this has to be done at the federal level, for Congressional elections. Otherwise reform proposals will run afoul of the unilateral disarmenant problem.

Posted by Ed | June 19, 2007 11:21 PM