unfortunately inspections shows that those four states use districts of only DM-2 so not large enough to work for House of Reps.
but they could be building blocks for national level districts,
thus, say for New Jersey with 12 House of Reps and 40 districts, each with two state Assemblymen and one Senator
NJ could have 2 House of Rep districts each electing 6,
each HofR district could be split into 4 districts ("State districts"), each electing ten General Assembly and 5 state Senators. (each HofR district would cover 20 of today's districts. Each new "state district" would cover a quarter of a new HofR district, or 5 of the old districts.)
(national-level Senators would be elected state-wide, hopefully staggered terms will be dropped)
with only two (or eight) districts instead of 12 or 40, the opportunity for gerrymandering would be reduced.
every member is elected in an multi-member district.
with fair voting (each voter having one vote and list PR or STV used), affirmative gerrymandering would not be required to ensure minority representation.
Now i see the maps where you designed the MMDs in NJ using three or four MMDs, and using the largest DM possible when five is max DM and four is discouraged.
Perhaps three- or four-district systems could made to work to be used with the state assemblymen and the state Senators as well.
(but 40 is not evenly divisible by 12. 40 is divisible by 2 and 8 so the 2-8 district system works well mathematically.
SO...
NJ could have 4 House of Rep districts each electing 3,
each HofR district could be split into 2 districts ("State districts"), each electing ten General Assembly and 5 state Senators. (each HofR district would cover 10 of today's districts. Each new "state district" would cover half of a new HofR district, or 5 of the old districts.)
yes, where possible, DM should float up to ten or more. list PR and STV both operate well even at that level.
(see Denmark today list PR, or Winnipeg Canada when it used STV to elect ten legislators from 1920 to 1949)
some states use multi-seat district to elect state reps
perhaps those large districts might work to elect HofR Representatives
Nine states use multimember districts to fill at least one state legislative chamber, and four — Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota and Washington — elect all their state lawmakers this way.
Hi Tom, good reminder that a number of US states use multi-seat districts for state legislature. It's not as foreign as some critics make it out to be, including some political scientists who should know better. How many times do we hear how RCV is "a violation of one person, one vote" because it allows multiple rankings to fill a single seat, yet many states allow voters to cast multiple VOTES to fill more than one legislative seat in their state govt. Thanks.
Unfortunately while 5 member districts may better balance Ds and Rs it will likely take 10 member districts to give thirds parties an initial seat at the table. Ten percent should be enough to get representation.
unfortunately inspections shows that those four states use districts of only DM-2 so not large enough to work for House of Reps.
but they could be building blocks for national level districts,
thus, say for New Jersey with 12 House of Reps and 40 districts, each with two state Assemblymen and one Senator
NJ could have 2 House of Rep districts each electing 6,
each HofR district could be split into 4 districts ("State districts"), each electing ten General Assembly and 5 state Senators. (each HofR district would cover 20 of today's districts. Each new "state district" would cover a quarter of a new HofR district, or 5 of the old districts.)
(national-level Senators would be elected state-wide, hopefully staggered terms will be dropped)
with only two (or eight) districts instead of 12 or 40, the opportunity for gerrymandering would be reduced.
every member is elected in an multi-member district.
with fair voting (each voter having one vote and list PR or STV used), affirmative gerrymandering would not be required to ensure minority representation.
Now i see the maps where you designed the MMDs in NJ using three or four MMDs, and using the largest DM possible when five is max DM and four is discouraged.
Perhaps three- or four-district systems could made to work to be used with the state assemblymen and the state Senators as well.
(but 40 is not evenly divisible by 12. 40 is divisible by 2 and 8 so the 2-8 district system works well mathematically.
SO...
NJ could have 4 House of Rep districts each electing 3,
each HofR district could be split into 2 districts ("State districts"), each electing ten General Assembly and 5 state Senators. (each HofR district would cover 10 of today's districts. Each new "state district" would cover half of a new HofR district, or 5 of the old districts.)
That would work.
yes, where possible, DM should float up to ten or more. list PR and STV both operate well even at that level.
(see Denmark today list PR, or Winnipeg Canada when it used STV to elect ten legislators from 1920 to 1949)
some states use multi-seat district to elect state reps
perhaps those large districts might work to elect HofR Representatives
Nine states use multimember districts to fill at least one state legislative chamber, and four — Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota and Washington — elect all their state lawmakers this way.
Hi Tom, good reminder that a number of US states use multi-seat districts for state legislature. It's not as foreign as some critics make it out to be, including some political scientists who should know better. How many times do we hear how RCV is "a violation of one person, one vote" because it allows multiple rankings to fill a single seat, yet many states allow voters to cast multiple VOTES to fill more than one legislative seat in their state govt. Thanks.
Unfortunately while 5 member districts may better balance Ds and Rs it will likely take 10 member districts to give thirds parties an initial seat at the table. Ten percent should be enough to get representation.