I'd be interested in hearing more about this, too. But remember that
Ireland isn't true PR; it's a single transferable vote (STV) system. So
that creates incentives to coordinate ballots across members of a group,
but where does the gerrymandering come in?

Happy Holidays,

David Epstein


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu
[mailto:owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu] On Behalf Of Dan
Johnson-Weinberger
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 12:59 PM
To: election-law@majordomo.lls.edu
Subject: Re: Proportional multi-member system

A simple switch to PR won't prevent gerrymandering.  Ask the folks in 
Ireland.

Mark E. Rush

That's intriguing, because it's counter-intuitive. The fuel of 
gerrymandering in the U.S. is the lack of representation for the
political 
minority in a single-member district. That's pretty clear from the Vieth

oral argument (thanks Marty for the link), and I thought
commonly-accepted 
among students of redistricting.

Multi-member districts with proportional voting make it far more
difficult 
to effectively gerrymander, because the political minority still gets 
elected. That, I thought, was also a commonly-accepted understanding.

Northern Ireland certainly sufferers from anti-Catholic gerrymandering
(or 
at least has suffered in the past according to Catholic advocates), but 
Northern Ireland uses single-member districts.

Does the Republic of Ireland, which uses three-member to five-member 
districts, really suffer from gerrymandering as well?

Happy New Year,
Dan

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