Ohio's Congressional districts -- the ugly gerrymander

[woxyroxme]

Originally Posted by WRnative

https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/in...rong_ohio.html

Good.

Congressional districts should be as square as possible and include complete counties wherever possible. The current map is a self serving disgrace and reeks of corruption.

[Bo]

Originally Posted by woxyroxme

Good.

Congressional districts should be as square as possible and include complete counties wherever possible.

Those parameters seem very arbitrary. The people in my county's county seat have very little in common with the (mostly) rural, impoverished people in the rest of the county. Their voting patterns are completely different, too. There are more people in the county seat than in the rest of the county, so lumping both into the same basket probably means the rural folks won't like the results of the election. And what does that accomplish? The rural folks in my county have more in common with the rural folks in every adjacent county than they do with the people in the county seat. They're probably happier being in the same basket with the folks in the next county.

And, why square? Squares have straight lines. The simplest way to keep the district lines straight is to put the line in the middle of a straight road. What good is it to put neighbors across the road from each other in different districts?