[EL] Rick Pildes Guest Post

[Steven John Mulroy (smulroy)]

Rick Pildes does a good job explaining the practical tensions between partisan fairness and competitiveness, and between both and traditional districting criteria like compactness, contiguity, respect for political subdivision boundaries, and "communities of interest" (whatever that means). In my recent book Rethinking US Election Law, I argue that these tensions are inherent and irreconcilable, and reveal a fundamental flaw in our single member district, winner take all system. Thus, we should not assume that the ultimate I hope I iremedy is in independent Redistricting commissions (or IRCs, as Pildes calls them) 

. Rather, we should consider proportional representation approaches using multi member districts and ranked choice voting.  They have many advantages beyond fixing the persistence of "natural gerrymanders" even with well intentioned IRC map-drawers.  There should be a new piece about this soon in The New Republic. 

I hope reformers disappointed by Rucho don't rush to judgment towards IRCs as a perceived best practice. 

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