----- Original Message ----- From: "Jurij Toplak" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, March 22, 2002 2:03 AM Subject: Re: [EM] More on Gerrymander prevention > > Most of the countries draw districts according to the total "population". > Some draw them according to the "total number of voters" (for example > England) but none does it according to the "votes cast". The reason is > called "equal voting right principle". If the districts would be drawn > according to the votes cast that would mean that people that do not vote > would be underrepresented.
I understand your point, but in a sense they are unrepresented anyway -- non-voters are not randomly picked, but choose themselves when the effort of voting costs more than the benefit of voting. I can see how my vote should be equal to another person's vote, but having my vote equal to another person's non-vote? American history is not so kind on this count -- at the start of the most shameful chapter in our country, slaves were "represented" by 3/5ths of a vote, with such "representation" chosen by whites. Even when blacks were enfranchised, things like poll taxes and literacy tests were used to keep them away from the ballot box. It would have been better if representation had been decided by the actual number of votes cast -- that way, there would have been an incentive to see that everyone voted. (In fact, you would have probably seen a competition between states as to which would give women, blacks, native Americans, etc. the vote first). Too bad the number of districts aren't a nice power of two -- both of us could be satisfied then. Draw a line between the population centroid and the voting centroid (or population median and voting median), and continue until you have the number of districts you want. That way, roughly equal voters and residents would be in each district. Michael Rouse [EMAIL PROTECTED]
