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this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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Republicans in Alabama don't want the wrong kind of people voting.
As an Alabamians, I find the Republicans a sickening and embarrassing stain.
You're right, but this whole legal fiction going on is maddening.
The truth is that the GOP wants to draw district maps they think will help the GOP maintain minority rule: it's about party votes, not skin color. It comes across as being about skin color because the GOP believes they correlate.
Because our electoral laws are written so incompetently, partisan gerrymandering isn't just legal, it's expected. So the DNC has to engage the partisan fight the GOP started here on racial grounds because that's what we made illegal.
The whole thing could be fixed by designing an inherently fair algorithm to automate the districting process, but both the DNC and the GOP will never let that happen. So instead we get this nonsense.
Here's a fabulous nonpolitical video for you. TL;DR: you can make algorithms that are SO MUCH BETTER at gerrymandering than the current political process and even produce districts that appear to not be gerrymandered, but which profoundly decide elections.
An algorithmic approach is honestly the worst possible response to this. Districting is inherently political and so the process behind it must be political. In the two-party political system of the US, that means a bipartisan commission to handle districting. Several states have implemented such a system and they do not get in the news for gerrymandering.
you could use a bipartisan commission using a algorithmic approach to get better defined districts that are closely aligned with the actual % of voters voting for each party.