Douglas Johnson in McClatchy-Tribune Business News
From an article in today’s McClatchy-Tribune Business News by Ryan Orr from Victoreville Daily Press:
Doug Johnson of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government said that the Republican legislator’s job is more to control the damage than to push their own policies.
“I think the Republicans in Sacramento will continue to play defense, like they have been since 1996,” said Johnson
He said that bipartisan support is common of Democratic bills, but Democrats supporting a Republican bill is essentially unheard of.
The survey contains a vast amount of data about fees, taxes, costs, and incentives that affect business in more than 400 communities nationwide. Updated annually, it is a valuable resource for cities, businesses, and developers.
The solution that I have in mind will produce the following results:
Take politics completely out of the redistricting process.
Eliminate redistricting legal arguments that require judicial resolution
Eliminate biases relative to race, political party affiliation, and incumbency.
The suggestion is this:
1) Input to a computer the voting population and boundary definition for all PRECINCTS.
2) Input the total number of districts to be determined for the state and the allowable variation of district populations.
3) Define any initial sample districting arrangement.
4) Program the computer to calculate the SUM OF DISTRICT PERIMETERS.
5) Then program the computer to work to a solution that results in a:
MINIMUM SUM OF DISTRICT PERIMETERS *
Note: * Any GPS driving computer does an equivalent task in a few moments when determining the Minimum Mileage, or Minimum Driving Time, between any two points in the country via defined highways
There will be only one solution for the given set of precinct definitions and allowed district population variances.
Further, there is NO conceivable method wherein this process can be politically manipulated without altering the precinct boundaries.
I would sincerely appreciate your views on this technique and welcome your questions in the event that my explanation lacks good definition.
Sincerely,
John M. Evjen
714 NW 40 Terrace
Gainesville, FL 32807
352-372-7367
by John Evjen
on 28. Feb, 2010
An interesting idea, but I do not think it would work. First, it would clearly make it impossible to comply with the federal voting rights act. Second, precincts are already altered constantly and such a rule would simply add one more motivation to the drawing of precinct lines.
by Douglas M. Johnson, Consulting Fellow
on 30. Mar, 2010