[EM] Inherent republican bias in single-member seats

[Jameson Quinn]

Here's an interesting
article<http://www.bostonreview.net/BR36.5/jonathan_rodden_jowei_chen_congressional_redistricting.php>
:

http://www.bostonreview.net/BR36.5/jonathan_rodden_jowei_chen_congressional_redistricting.php

They survey 11 states with a simulation which creates random political
districts, and find that 9 of the 11 have a "natural Democratic bias"
because the urban bias to Democrats is stronger than the rural bias to
Republicans. That is, even if the electorate were split 50/50 and there is
no intentional gerrymandering, in some states Republicans win as many as 2/3
of the seats. The two exceptions are two of the most strongly-Republican
states in the country - OK and WY.

This kind of thing highlights the need for proportional representation. I
believe that hybrid geographical/proportional systems like
SODA-PR<http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/SODA#SODA-PR_.28proportional_representation_version_of_SODA.29>have
the best hope of passing in the US.

Jameson
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