Heard of the ‘efficiency gap’? You may soon. It’s key to a Wisconsin redistricting lawsuit that could eventually affect how Michigan’s lines are drawn.
gerrymandering
Interactive map: See how districts are drawn in YOUR community
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An uphill fight to take redistricting out of politicians’ hands
Grassroots activists seek a referendum on alternatives to gerrymandering. The odds are stacked against them.
To kill the gerrymander, elect better representatives
WHAT ROUGH BEAST? Oddly shaped districts, like Michigan’s 14th in the U.S. Congress, are the result of political power plays. But the solution isn’t necessarily to take politics out of the process, argues Brunch columnist Conor Dugan. Rep. Sean McCann, D-Kalamazoo, has proposed legislation that would establish an independent, nonpartisan commission consisting of “regular citizens” […]
Guest column: Make every vote count
By Dan Brown The result of gerrymandering is the antithesis of representative government. As Phil Power recently noted, when the 2012 election gives one party 54 percent of the seats in the Michigan House of Representatives while receiving only 45 percent of the vote, the concept of representative government is negated. But, is it only […]
Capitol Hill chaos should drive voters to kill off old ‘gerrymander’
Most people agree that our politics and government today are too often severely dysfunctional. And there’s one big reason why: The taproot of much of all this can be traced to our severely gerrymandered state legislative and congressional districts. For a glimpse of just how powerful this is, all you have to do is glance […]