From The Harman Report that just came over the transom:
Test Your Luck at New Online Redistricting Game
The evidence is overwhelming that the current district lines rob many voters of the right to fairly choose their representatives. Instead of the voters choosing the politicians, the politicians are choosing which voters they would like to represent. This system is hopelessly flawed and leads to terrible results and a lack of representation by elected officials. But, why is it so hard to fix the system? Simply put: lawmakers do not want to let go of the political power that allows them to manipulate the system to their own advantage and draw lines on a purely partisan basis.
We need to reform the way California’s electoral boundaries are drawn, and we need to do it now. Until real reforms to redistricting are made, district boundaries will continue to serve the needs of politicians over the needs of the people of California.
To this end, a new website allows users to take a crack at drawing district boundaries Players must adhere to both federal and state voter rights act; compact districts; and population and contiguity requirements. This is a great resource to learn more about redistricting, and I encourage you to play at: http://www.redistrictinggame.org/
I still can't figure out why the voters did not approve the last initiative to change the method of drawing district boundaries.
Posted by: Patricia | July 03, 2007 at 08:33 PM
Everything during the special election got shot down. The voters revolted against spending all that money for a special election when we couldn't even pay our bills.
Plus, the teachers union jumped all over it and ran ad against ad featuring Judge Wapner, just to prove to the Governor that they could.
Posted by: They were angry | July 04, 2007 at 11:40 AM