Australian Multi-Member Multi-Constituency Elections
Fillard Rhyne
fillard at hevanet.com
Fri Apr 17 09:37:57 PDT 1998
IHF> 1. I don't believe there is any gerrymandering in
IHF> Australia (any longer), since in every jurisdiction the
IHF> electoral boundaries are now determined by processes that
IHF> are independent of the Parliaments. In Tasmania for
Do you use the word "gerrymander" to describe both intentional
and unintentional disadvantages? That is, if a single-member
district were unintentionally drawn to the disadvantage of a
group of people, would you call it a gerrymander?
If so, I would reply that gerrymandering is like the Christian
concept of original sin, in that it can't be escaped: _all_
single-member districtings discriminate against some group of
people, even if they are drawn by a random or impartial process.
I don't have a proof for the above statement; it's an opinion I
formed while creating some fictional examples of gerrymandering.
Fillard
More information about the Election-Methods
mailing list