Below are three discussion posts made by students to the following discussion topic. Please write a 1-2 paragraph response to EACH of the three posts!

Discussion 4 – Electoral Geography

If you were assigned the task to create political districts at the
state and/or national level, from a political geography standpoint, how
would you draw districts? Take into consideration any current mandates
based on law as well as geography (what would make the most compact
groups).

You can also address the following: Is it even possible to have 1
person, 1 vote in our country? Is there a better way to draw districts
(based on geography)?

Student One’s Post:

One
aspect I would probably focus on when drawing districts would be the
demographics that make the largest impact on the area. For example, if
it is a mostly low income area, I would not put a piece of a more
wealthy area into that district. The area of the district that is not
low income is not going to have the same interests as the lower income
citizens. However, creating lower and higher income districts could be
an issue, because certain districts may be overlooked more, and may not
receive as much attention given their status. Another demographic to
consider is age. For example, if it is a district around a university,
they might need different council than a suburb known for retirees.
However, the biggest consideration would likely be population. Of
course, if there are fewer people in an area then the district will
spread over a wider area. This way, certain districts are not overlooked
and neglected because they do not concern as many people.

As far as creating districts for electoral purposes, it is difficult
to say how I would allocate district lines to ensure it is fair, based
on what I’ve learned about political geography. Avoiding gerrymandering
seems like an extremely difficult task that requires constant review of
the public census. Not to mention, those districts are being created
based solely on the populations political views. I think it would be
better to draw district lines based on the most important demographics
of the area. Of course, I would not want to segregate certain areas
based on age, race, or income, but I do think that if certain areas are
to get what is needed, it is better if the majority of the community is
on the same page. But, maybe it would instead be better to draw the
district lines where it mixes communities, and requires district leaders
to accommodate different types of citizens and help to erase some of
the invisible boarders we tend to put up in our communities. I really do
not know which way would work better.

Student Two’s Post:

Drawing
political district lines are almost impossible to draw fairly and
impartially by any party. I struggle with this issue time and time again
whenever the topic arises in discussion. On one hand, it would be easy
to just have geographical squares become new voting districts in
elections and take demographics out of it, but on the other hand, each
person having an equal vote as in a direct democratic election could be
considered more fair. The problem is currently that if each person had a
vote, the nation would be split almost exactly in half with democrats
taking the win almost every time because of the demographics and social
issues arising in our country. If I were a Republican farmer in Iowa, I
wouldn’t consider my voice to be heard if that was the case, and we
would run into a similar problem that we did during the civil war where
the North had a lot more say than the South did when it came to federal
laws. Obviously the laws that were being passed were a little bit more
consequential (slavery and state’s rights) but the principle remains the
same. If each person had a voice, the voices of the urban areas would
be more heard than people living in rural areas which would cause
issues.

Because of this, I believe we should just have every 100,000 people
represent one district in as reasonably square shape as possible from
left to right in each state. Those straight forward guidelines wouldn’t
leave too much space for bias. My only worry is that the idea of
district lines indirectly influences where people decide to live, but
there is no way to control that. Grouping people by how similar they are
in their voting behavior becomes very polarizing at the end of the day.
People need to learn to have conversations with people who are
different from them and that might be a good lesson if we draw the lines
regardless of the people who live there.

Student Three’s Post:

Drawing political districts is a very controversial topic in today’s
society. Unfortunately, there will never be a perfect system for drawing
political districts. Geography is a great asset to start creating
districts. However, land is not everything. You must have a huge
population to create a majority. District maps are defined by the state
lawmakers. The problem is, politicians are biased and draw districts to
favor one party over another. Fortunately, our technology advances have
helped with mapping, visualization and data analysis. Drawing of
districts should take an account the characteristics such as class,
education, religion, ethnicity and age. The only problem with this
method, is you can predict the outcome of the voting behavior. Geography
should not be the fundamental aspect for voting and elections.
Geography should be the background for the voting procedure. Honestly, I
do not see a better way for drawing districts. I do believe we should
continue to have the 1 person, 1 vote in our country!