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by TomK32 2516 days ago
This needs to be coloured in shades of Blue and Red.
5 comments

I don't think that would give you the information you think it would.

Gerrymandering includes packing opposition votes into one district.

So whether a district is red or blue tells you nothing about whether it has been gerrymandered by a republican or a democrat

Both parties are equally terrible when it comes to gerrymandering, I, thankfully, vote in a state that is one of seven that has absolutely solved gerrymandering for all time... Vermont - it's hard to creatively draw districts when everyone is in the same one.
It should be obvious that you can’t trust any political party with the power to decide who their own voters will be. It’s not a partisan issue. If Republicans are doing it more in recent years it’s only because they’ve had more opportunity.

I’m not usually a “both sides” sort of person, but in this case it’s like putting a steak in front of a dog and expecting them not to eat it.

Nah, both parties are complicit; no need to trigger tribalism here, just stop gerrymandering.
Indeed, the previous time the US Supreme Court was dealing with gerrymandering rules/tests it was a republicans accusing the democrat's of unfair gerrymandering in Maryland: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-333_b97c.pdf

Then the latest one was democrats challenging republicans in Wisconsin.

It has a long complicated history of courts and politicians trying to balance the lines. As long as there's a way to game the system in your favour, someone will try - regardless of party.

No, it doesn't. Because what the district votes for isn't necessarily the party that drew the lines. The goal of gerrymandering is to create safe districts for yourself, and your opponents (But more safe districts for yourself).

Just because a district that looks like a dragon riding a spaceship votes blue doesn't mean that it was created by a Democrat. It could have been a Republican, who attached all the areas that were likely to vote D to that district. (And ended up turning the neighbouring 3 districts, which look a little less insane into solid R blocks.) Or vice versa.

According to the cook political report[1]:

California 3 - D+5

Texas 35 - D+15

Ohio 12 - R+7

Ohio 7 - R+12

Connecticut 1 - D+12

Missouri 8 - R+24

Missouri 6 - R+16

Oregon 5 - EVEN

Ohio 4 - R+14

North Carolina 6 - R+9

Texas 15 - D+7

Illinois 18 - R+15

Alabama 1 - R+15

New York 7 - D+38

New York 8 - D+36

Illinois 11 - D+9

Arizona 6 - R+9

Florida 25 - R+4

Texas 12 - R+18

Ohio 10 - R+4

Michigan 13 - D+32

Tennessee 4 - R+20

California 43 - D+29

Illinois 4 - D+33

New Jersey 5 - R+3

New York 8 - D+36 (yes they used it twice)

California 8 - R+9

California 14 - D+27

Illinois 12 - R+5

Indiana 8 - R+15

Ohio 8 - R+17

What you are looking for is states where you see a lot of one party with +5-9 districts and then a handful of districts that are +20 or more for the other party.

https://cookpolitical.com/pvi-map-and-district-list