[EM] Re: Election redistricting

[Anthony Duff]

 --- Ernest Prabhakar <drernie at mac.com> wrote: > 
> 
> For the record, our California governor (Arnold) is proposing
> something 
> along those lines, of having non-partisan judges draw district 
> boundaries.   Unfortunately, since judge usually start out with
> some 
> party affiliation before they actually run as judges, its not
> always 
> clear you can get real non-partisanality in a place as polarized as
> 
> California.

I'm wondering why he would want to use judges.  I think it is clearly
a task for long term bureaucrats.  There will be a list a fuzzy rules
that will conflict, there will be exceptions, many iterations of
whatever method/algorithm will likely be needed, and it is a
continuing as long as populations move and change.  Sure, computers
can do most of the work, but  the results will need to be carefully
looked at by real people.  Bureacrats can perform these endless
tedius tasks and provide continuity.  It doesn't sound like the sort
of thing a judge is used to doing.  The role of jusges would come in
to play when someone challenges the decision of the bureacrats.

Anthony

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