On November 2, redistricting reform ballot measures passed in both Florida and California. In Florida, the measures require the legislature to draw congressional and legislative district boundaries without regard for partisanship and without regard for helping incumbents. The lines must respect county boundaries to the extent possible. Both measure (one for U.S. House boundaries, and one for legislative boundaries) needed 60%, but both attained it.
In California, over 60% of the voters voted to transfer authority for drawing U.S. House district boundaries to the same Citizens Commission that was already in place for drawing legislative boundaries. A rival measure, to eliminate the Citizens Commission, failed with only 40% of the vote.
ALL single member district systems are AUTOMATIC minority rule systems.
Half the votes in half the districts = about 25-30 percent minority rule.
P.R. NOW — Total Votes / Total Seats = EQUAL votes for all seat winners = ALL voters get represented.
That’s good, but California is even more screwed now that Prop. 23 was defeated- there’s gonna be a LOT of jobs leaving that state come January!
Prop 19 also lost, which may hurt as well.
That’s good news about Florida and California. A similar fight may be brewing here in New York over reapportionment. I’m gonna be fighting for PR but the issues that will get voted on will have more to do with who controls redistricting, as in these two states, and whether the new Governor Cuomo, will carry out his threat to veto gerrymandered districts in the spring.