Could open source increase fairness and transparency in redistricting?

No readers like this yet.
open thread words on blue background

Opensource.com

State legislatures around the United States have been going through a redistricting process where they are updating the electoral boundaries that will impact future elections. Do you think the open source way could play a role in this process?

The goal of redistricting in the U.S. is to balance the number of people that each member of Congress represents. For example, if a state has 5 million people and 10 congressional districts, each district should have around 500,000 people in it, balancing the population to elected representation.

The redistricting process often occurs the year after new U.S. census data is released. States then redraw the boundaries of their districts in response to reported population changes. However, the redistricting process is highly political, and state legislatures are often accused of manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan districts, often known as gerrymandering.

Open thread

Could transparency, openness, and data-driven analysis create an outcome that is more fair for the people instead of the politicians? Would a more open process prevent gerrymandering or any political gain from this cat and mouse game?

Tags
Avatar
Jason Hibbets is a Community Director at Red Hat with the Digital Communities team. He works with the Enable Architect, Enable Sysadmin, Enterprisers Project, and Opensource.com community publications.

1 Comment

This is an excellent idea and suggestion. I read an article in the New York Times on Sunday about gerrymandering. Many cities are being torn apart by redistricting, and we've all seen what has happened in North Carolina. No matter which party is in charge, we should have a more transparent process that is fairer to the voters. After all, that's what democracy is really all about.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.