Chris Ingram writes on the Washington Post's political blog:
Yesterday, I asked readers how they felt about setting up independent commissions to handle redistricting in each state. Commenter Mitch Beales wrote: "It seems to me that an 'independent panel' is about as likely as politicians redistricting themselves out of office. This is the twenty-first century. How hard can it be to create an algorithm to draw legislative districts after each census?" Reader "BobMunck" agreed: "Why do people need to be involved in mapping the districts?"
Here's Virginia in 2010 according to Olson's algorithm. Congress:
House of Delegates:
State Senate:
Jim Bacon had a post recently on Virginia's seeming stagnation when it comes to implementing new ideas in government. How about being the first state to do this?
I am also a big fan of California's Proposition 14, which consolidates all primaries into a single election. The two candidates receiving the highest number of votes then advance to the general election - essentially a runoff system similar to that used in many other countries. It removes the incentives in the primary stage to cater to the most extreme parts of the base and allows less conventional combinations of political views that might have cross-party appeal to make a case to the whole public.
Either of these innovations might help us do something about the incredibly non-competitive (and therefore not particularly democratic) Virginia state legislature.
