In addition to term limits and campaign finance disclosure, ERA put redistricting in the hands of an independent commission and required that the number of party registered voters be balanced in each district. The conflict of interest of having legislative bodies draw election districts is obvious. Redistricting must be entrusted to a body of independent citizens more interested in increasing election competition than lightening the re-election load. In addition to the current criteria of equal population and contiguousness, a compactness criteria must be enforced. The goal is to minimize the ratio of perimeter to surface area, making appendages to capture desired population clusters more difficult.
Elections are an integral part of both the democratic process and the American culture.
The notion of an increasingly constrained election process has no future. Lacking the necessary changes, more extreme reforms such as abandonment of geographic representation altogether, may be on the horizon. This article, from the Independence Institute staff, fellows and research network, is offered for your use at no charge. Independence Feature Syndicate articles are published for educational purposes only, and the authors speak for themselves. Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily representing the views of the Independence Institute or as an attempt to influence any election or legislative action.