The Gerrymander That Ate America

[Az]

why don't just use country borders for this?

[KrazyHorse]

Country?

Do you mean county?

And the reason is that congressional districts are distributed by population. Each district needs to have pretty close to the same number of people living in it (there are some exceptions for people living in small states). Counties have different numbers of people living in them.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Did you mean county borders?

If so the rationale is that congressional representatives are supposed to have representation over a given roughly equal number of people. Because not all counties are equal with respect to populations that means county borders can not necessarilybe used. Likewise representaive maybe more numerous or less numerous than the given number of o****ies within a state.

edit - damn you KH and your fast typing skills and my obviously pityful ones..

[Az]

yeah, obviously- but why not, like, use counties with similar amounts of population, or to be more precise, group counties into groups with similar amounts.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Az
why don't just use country borders for this?

Seats in the house of Representatives are apportioned so that everyone represents an equal amount of citizens (or rather it is supposed to be but there are some exceptions; an example would be a state with only one representative) Typically that doesn't easily break down on a county basis.

[Spiffor]

Third time's a charm

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Az
yeah, obviously- but why not, like, use counties with similar amounts of population, or to be more precise, group counties into groups with similar amounts.

Some counties have more than the population needed for 1 rep. LA county has 10 million people in it.

Counties have strange distributions of populations. You're still going to have to divide some of them. Which ones? What grouping are you going to choose?

The problem is that right now in many states these questions are answered by the state legislature. So whoever's in charge at the state level draws the most ridiculously biased map he can.

[Az]

hmmm... problems problems....

on a mostly non-relevant question - are cities considered counties? how the **** does that work? I remember that the 5 boroughs of NYC were once counties, but were united into a single city ... but not completely...

simply put, I don't understand the heirarchy.

[KrazyHorse]

It's a sort of archaic system.

NY is still 5 counties

most cities are part of 1 larger county
some contain part or all of more counties
some cities are not properly part of any county. They are autonomous. Baltimore City, for example

[Az]

man, they have a tiered federal system - I understand it and it's a must, but the logic and implications and the non-uniformity of all of this elude me and make me sort of baffled at it all...

[KrazyHorse]

The city/county thing is one of the most confusing aspects. Where I'm from there are only 3 tiers: federal, provincial, municipal. The fact that there are 2 separate and concurrent municipal authorities in the US is sort of silly. Like I said, I think it's a bit of an archaism.

[Az]

The city/county thing is one of the most confusing aspects. Where I'm from there are only 3 tiers: federal, provincial, municipal.

Canadia

I wouldn't mind having either cities and counties at the same time - it makes sense ( counties for rural, and cities for urban ), but the fact that they cross each other and stuff is annoying....

[Imran Siddiqui]

Well it is kind of necessary in some parts of the US, where rural folk don't really belong to a municipality per se (they'd be an unincorporated part of a city, perhaps).

[Wezil]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Where I'm from there are only 3 tiers: federal, provincial, municipal.

4 in some places - Regional governments (ie Waterloo Region)

[KrazyHorse]

There are rural parts of Canada too

"Municipality" is just some lines drawn on a map. The less people around, the bigger the area is.