Kinda cool: The 50 states, redrawn with equal population

[arcane1]

The 576,412 people who reside in Wyoming represent 0.18 percent of the total U.S. population. But Wyoming’s three electoral votes represent 0.68 percent of the total number of votes available to a presidential candidate, and the state’s two senators are, of course, 2 percent of the voting members of the U.S. Senate. Blame the electoral college and the Constitution, which sets the number of senators, for Wyoming’s (relatively) outsized influence.

But what if we redrew the map to give every state an equal voice — by giving them an equal population? Mapmaker Neil Freeman has done just that, by drawing 50 states with just about 6,175,000 people each.




http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/25/the-50-states-redrawn-with-equal-population/

Link to larger-size map: http://fakeisthenewreal.org/reform/

[tridim]

1. That election would be so much fun!

And probably net a ton of Democratic seats.

Now, who gets to draw the lines?

[Warpy]

4. WE do

Republicans are as bad at reading maps as they are at reading English and doing math.

[Laxman]

2. Population Density is an interesting thing...

as a good friend of mine used to say every time he gave a presentation, "if New Jersey were its own country, it would be the most densely populated industrial nation in the world". Putting aside NYC, which is on a scale all of its own, when you look at states like NJ, MD, CT, RI & MA, there are so many people in these relatively small areas, its hard to compare the magnitude of the density to other parts of the country. There are counties in NJ with more people than WY or ID. Yet they get 2 senators while Bergen, Hudson or Essex counties get a piece of two.

[backscatter712]

3. Interesting proposal. But in reality, the GOP would gerrymander the fuck out of them. nt

[FarCenter]

5. It doesn't make sense to split up the New York Combined Statistical Area.

That has population of 23.4 million.

Using that as the scale, you would get a total of 15 states.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_Metropolitan_Area_Counties_2013.png

[tabbycat31]

6. We had to do a similar project in high school

[KoKo]

7. Recommend. I think this gets into the "Proportional Representation" Argument?

I think the time has come to push on that. Although I understand when we were a more Rural Population the Founders worried about the Big Cities having more weight than the Rurals.

But, just as with the Filibuster. The time has come for CHANGE!

[arcane1]

10. I understand the whole "the house represents the people, the senate represents the states" idea.

But the USA was born rather small, and was competing with other colonial presences. The founders obviously envisioned expansion of the territory, but I don't think they envisioned states with so many square miles with so few people. Or states with few square miles as populated as some are.

I like having a senate, but I wonder what it would be like if it was more like the house: each state gets one senator for every x number of people.

[Enrique]

8. very cool

i love the names.

[arcane1]

9. The names are the most fascinating part. I wish the map was larger.

I'm reminded of a map I saw recently that had the literal translation of all the state names:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/map_of_the_week/2013/06/literal_meanings_of_places_in_the_u_s_map.html

ps: you can zoom and scroll on the map image for more detail