When after the Census do they redo voting districts, and do

[napi21]

any States actually use the Census results or are they always redrawn strictly by political whims?

[brendan120678]

1. Redistricting is supposed to be complete before the 2012 elections...

and the state legislatures are generally supposed to use the figures to draw the lines, but they can still draw the districts in such odd shapes to guarantee certain outcomes in certain districts.

[SteppingRazor]

2. Census results just reveal how many districts a state has.

They have nothing to do with how they're drawn. Thus, left to their own devices, politicians ensure that their own districts benefit them to the greatest extent possible. Here in Florida, they're working on passing two state constitutional amendments that would alleviate this problem.


http://www.fairdistrictsflorida.org/

[ThomWV]

5. Are you sure thats true - the districts still have to be reasonably equal in population, don't they?

I think they still have to use census data to keep the districts of reasonably equal size.

[jody]

6. Agree in nbr of constituents but gerrymandering is still possible. n/t

[SteppingRazor]

10. Yeah, as far as number of constituents they have to be similar...

but as far as how the district is drawn and who exactly those constituents are, that's up to the state legislature.

[Bitwit1234]

7. Well because they owned the state of TEXAS

Delay got the districts redrawn TWICE and they did nothing about it. He didn't get enough republican districts the first time and redid them. I thought you got one draw but evidently if you are Tom Delay you can get away with anything. We see that with him running around telling everybody the democrats are responsible for bush's mess and people like Creepy Crawley giving him face time. Why isn't this crook in JAIL.

[harkadog]

3. They will re do voting districts for the 2012 elections.

All states use census results but most redraw the borders by political whim. Some exceptions are Iowa which uses a computer to equalize districts. States where the legislature and governor are the same party will certainly draw according to politics. States where power is split sometimes have to compromise and draw fairer districts.

[jody]

4. The only states for which new voting districts would be required are those that gain or lose seats.

[slackmaster]

8. California will also be completely redoing its districts, whether or not it gains or loses seats

In 2008, voters approved Proposition 11, which completely changes the way districts are drawn.

A friend of mine is applying to serve on the new redistricting commission. I'm helping him with his application.

[jody]

9. Will the redistricting give more Hispanic reps? n/t

[slackmaster]

11. Impossible to predict - What it is supposed to do is bust up incumbent-safe districts

We have a lot of heavily gerrymandered state senate and assembly districts - They were made that way in order to provide "safe" seats for Democrats, with the unintended consequence of creating safe Republican districts that tend to be very dogmatic and conservative.