Gerrymander

creation of voting districts based on borders that typically reinforce existing power structures (e.g. by splitting clusters of protesters).

In representative democracies, gerrymandering (/ˈdʒɛrimændərɪŋ/, originally /ˈɡɛrimændərɪŋ/)[1][2] is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent of creating undue advantage for a party, group, or socio-economic class within the constituency. The manipulation may consist of "cracking" (diluting the voting power of the opposing party's supporters across many districts) or "packing" (concentrating the opposing party's voting power in one district to reduce their voting power in other districts). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering

Can "objective" systems be designed? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Objective_rules_to_create_districts

• what's the goal?

being challenged in California

origins of word? http://51state.wordpress.com/2006/02/08/statewide-term-limits/

Greg Costikyan reviews "The Redistricting Computer Game": at first, you're just redistricting for population equality, but then you try to gerrymander in favor of your party, and then you also have to deal with racial considerations (a constraint in federal law)... if the politicos are having this much fun figuring out how to screw the voters, what's the likelihood that they'll ever vote for reform?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Equality_Act_of_2017#Ranked-Choice_Voting

How to work within it: 2005-09-16-BrinGerrymanderEffects