> Well, it is a good post. Gerrymandering has been around forever. The
> Democrats in the Texas legislature escaped to Oklahoma this past summer to
> avoid having to vote on a gerrymander proposal put forth by their
Republican
> colleagues.
>
> We have worked with political campaigns on a pro bono basis. There are
> Federal regulations that put some restrictions on unlimited district
> allocation, but the largest inhibitor is the simple fact that it is a
> relatively ineffective tool for elective results. The data defining the
> districts will be in place for ten years, until the next census report,
and
> 2000 data is already ancient as far as election campaigns are concerned.
>
> I have a little problem with stirring ethical considerations into the GIS
> pot. We very rapidly get into right/wrong determinations instead of what
is
> scientifically correct. We create the tools, the end user must determine
> how the tools will be used.
>
> John D. Haynes
> Director
> Geodata Consultants, Inc.
> 1-800-838-6661 ex.10
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> www.geodataconsult.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Frank, Claude" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 11:43 AM
> Subject: RE: MI-L The Dark Side of GIS
>
>
> Good post...makes me think that there ought to be some impartial GIS
> organization that issues opinions on topics like this. An outside
> monitor to ensure fairness the way the medical or legal organizations
> protect the interests of consumers (in theory anyway).
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 9:15 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: MI-L The Dark Side of GIS
>
> We may be contributing to a very bad trend in what we do..! I may have
> to
> light a blue touch paper and retire here - a very risky area - but I'm
> not
> making any sort of partisan point.
>
> Over Christmas I've been catching up on some reading and was both
> alarmed and
> fascinated by a long article in the New Yorker about gerrymandering in
> the
> US. To gerrymander is defined by Dictionary.com as "To divide (a
> geographic
> area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party
> in
> elections". There are now tools available that allow the use of census
> data,
> opinion polls, lifestyle etc to very high levels of accuracy previously
> unavailable. Presumably there are MapInfo partners that sell them.
>
> Voting districts need redrawing all the time of course. Managing this to
> ensure your rivals votes are nullified or reduced by shunting districts
> around so that they are swallowed up - or 'unhelpful' districts are
> merged -
> is the gerrymandering aspect. Its actually illegal in England but thats
> not
> to say it doesn't go on. This sort of thing has always happened but GIS
> makes
> it more precise - one voting district of notably bizarre shape in
> Philadelphia has been structured by local politicians (Republican in
> this
> case) to look like an 'upside down Chinese Dragon'.
>
> By these means the politicians ensure that they corrall off 'their' vote
> into
> safe blocks and then concentrate on the undecided voters when
> electioneering
> (the figure of 10% was used in the article). The result of this is to
> make
> the campaigning more and more shrill as there is no need to appeal to
> the
> mass of voters. The sheer violence of the language used in US election
> campaigns has always amazed me (I was there in 84 and 94) but its
> apparently
> getting much worse. It also means that the middle ground of opinion is
> ignored in the various legislatures - Republican/Democrat cooperation is
> now
> almost non-existent even on non-contentious issues.
>
> Obviously the New Yorker has what many listers would call through
> gritted
> teeth a 'liberal bias' but I think this is a valid point and even
> allowing
> for greater controls it could happen over here.
>
> I suppose if the tools are there they will get used but does anyone else
> share this concern?
>
> And now I'm going to change my identity and move to Patagonia.
>
> Paul Crisp
>
> Syntegra
> Innovation Place Delta Bank Road Newcastle NE11 9DJ
> Tel 0191 461 4522 Fax 0191 460 1987
>
>
>
>
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