> petro[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] wrote: > Mr. May: > >At 10:20 AM +0000 11/14/00, Ken Brown wrote: > >> > >> > >>But maybe to redraw the boundaries. That's a common problem in Britain. > >>Every now and again some government (almost always Conservative, for > >>reasons to do with gerrymandering I suspect) gets it into its head that > >>it would be a Good Thing if counties were more or less the same size so > >>tried to amalgamate smaller ones and split larger ones and "rationalize" > >>boundaries. > > > >You _do_ know, I assume, that the very term "gerrymandering" came > >from experiences in the U.S.? > > > >(Not to be confused with "jerrymathersing," which refers to the > >false claim that a person died in a war.) > > The impression that I get is that in Merry Old England, > voting is done by county, whereas in this country voting is done by > district. > > For the benefit of those not familiar with the American system: > > States (obviously) and counties have fixed boundaries, while > voting districts are redrawn every 10 or so years to attempt to keep > the population of each district relatively equivalent in population. > At least that's the theory. What really happens is that since those > in Power draw the lines, they attempt to draw the boundaries such > that they maintain or gain power. > Actually, voting in Britain is done by Parlimentary district, which is a lot smaller than a county. The names on the ballots are the candidates for Member of Parliment from that district.. The party which gets a majority of the parlimentary seats is requested by Mrs. Windsor to form a government. If no party gets a majority, the one with the largest number of seats tries to form a coalition government with one of the other parties. You don't vote directly for a party or Prime Minister (unless you happen to live in his or her district - the PM is an MP as well). And yes, redrawing parlimentary district boundaries is subject to the same partisan gerrymandering as congressional boundaries are in the US. Peter Trei
