A feature of many U.S. electoral maps has been the gerrymander: electoral districts drawn, sometimes ludicrously, to favour one party over another. In order to try to prevent that from happening, two upcoming ballot initiatives — one in California, one in Ohio — would, if approved, change the procedure by which electoral boundaries are redrawn: California’s would take it out of the hands of the state legislature; Ohio’s would not only depoliticize the panel already in place, but it would give that panel a mandate to draw districts in a way that would make them as competitive as possible, setting up the potential for a “reverse gerrymander” that would create districts that are just as convoluted as they were before. Expect interesting maps.

See previous entries: Texas Congressional Redistricting; State Redistricting Pages.