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491 points anigbrowl | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.621s | source
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parpfish ◴[] No.43981035[source]
Tangent:

I’ve often thought that it would be great to let people design their own political districts to reduce gerrymandering

At the polling place you’d get a map with your census tract and then be asked “which two or three adjacent tracts are most similar to your community”. Eventually you’d end up with some sort of gram matrix for tract-to-tract affinity, and then you could apply some algorithmic segmentation.

Two problems:

- this is far too complex for most voters to understand, much less trust, what’s happening

- the fact it’s “algorithmic” would give a sheen of pseudo objectivity, but the selection of the actual algorithm would still allow political infouence over boundaries

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HPsquared ◴[] No.43982345[source]
The problem is that constituency is about answering the question "who are my people?". Like, why don't we have an MP for tech workers and an MP for grandmothers? Why do constituencies need to be geographical?
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aembleton ◴[] No.43982523[source]
So that your representative can address local issues like a hospital being closed or a new road being built.
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1. HPsquared ◴[] No.43985464[source]
I care more about my demographic, my profession and role in society then I do about the local area I happen to live in right now. Geographic constituencies are a relic of the feudal past. Sure, local issues should be discussed at some point but it's really not a good way to represent the population and the actual range of viewpoints in society.
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2. panick21_ ◴[] No.43994042[source]
I would say geography is very relevant for local government and regional govenrment. But maybe for federal government its not as relevant.

How would federal voting work in your system? Are there any actual proposals? How would you form a parliament?