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A judge says that a Florida redistricting plan pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis violates the state constitution.

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[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 176 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Draw a single unconditional map, you lose the right to draw it and it goes to an independent group who'll do it properly.

Don't give these fascists another chance when they do something unconstitutional.

[–] hglman@lemmy.ml 60 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't have districts, have proportional elections.

[–] evatronic@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Realistically, geographical representation is important. The low population, rural areas of any state deserve to have a voice, too. Just, not an outsized, disproportionate one that a lot of these shitty maps give them.

[–] hglman@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

How does a proportional election remove the ability of rural people to choose someone? Its not a majority wins all election; it's a proportional one.

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[–] dartos@reddthat.com 20 points 1 year ago

I mean it should always be some kind of removed 3rd party drawing the lines. But nobody in power wants to give that power up.

[–] roboticide@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Draw a single unconditional map, you lose the right to draw it and it goes to an independent group who'll do it properly.

Needs to be enforced by an independent party, and as we saw in Ohio, the GOP will just go, "Nah, we think we'll keep it."

[–] Spacemanspliff@midwest.social 127 points 1 year ago (6 children)

It'll go down just like Ohio. They were told they needed to redistrict, they drew a map, they were told it was unconstitutional and to redraw it, they redrew it, it was deemed unconstitutional and they were told to redraw it, it was deemed unconstitutional and they were told to redraw it. They then were out of time and used the 1st unconstitutional map for the election.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 81 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah at a certain point they need to have a constitutional map handed to them

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The issue is that many states task the legislature with drawing the map. The legislature gets to pick who voted for them. If they make an unconstitutional one, they just have to draw more unconstitutional ones until there is no time left. If the Court tried to do it themselves because of the legislature's failure, they can sue because that responsibility was directly assigned to them. They need to take that responsibility away from the legislature in their Constitution. This should happen in every state.

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

They would sue the courts? Who would even oversee that? SCOTUS has already said they want no part of state election issues.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I should have said appealed. A judge will rule that their 5th map is also unconstitutional and they clearly cannot be tasked with making the map. So the judge makes one that would work or tasks a committee to do it. Republicans then appeal that decision because the constitution or a law specifies that the legislature creates the maps. They appeal up to the state Supreme Court.

[–] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

See, THIS. Is the kind of thing AI should actually be being used for.

[–] bitsplease@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 year ago

You don't even need AI for this, a very simple easy to audit algorithm could take care of it.

Hell, have it generate a few dozen versions that are all approximately as good, and let representatives (or even better, the actual people) vote on which to use

[–] LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.ch 13 points 1 year ago

AI isn't magical, you give it instructions to get an output. It also uses history to base its decisions on. Both of those things need humans to guide it, and those same people making shitty decisions now will just use AI to cloak shit in an the guise of unbiased computers.

[–] toasteecup@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Easier said than done.

Mapping is a very unique issue with a whole distinct set of mathematics whose is purpose is to try to make it easier, https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/discrete-mathematics-tutorial/#:~:text=Discrete%20Mathematics%20is%20a%20branch,logic%2Dbased%20statements%2C%20etc.

In addition to that, we've already seen AI school bus routes that had kids riding a bus until 9pm. https://fortune.com/2023/08/16/louisville-jefferson-school-bus-alpharoute-tech-firm-ohio-cincinnati/

Plainly put, having an AI that can understand districting and create districts based abstract ideas like "equal fairness" is quite difficult :(

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[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

They do, just to rig it instead. Let's use it to make fair maps.

[–] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They know they'd be completely screwed if things were fair, and not stacked in their favor.

[–] 0110010001100010@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

Of course, which is why they (republicans) have been working so hard to dismantle free and fair elections. They know they can't win if things are fair.

If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.

-David Frum

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That one pisses me off so much. Democrats were working with them on a legal one. Republicans hummed and hawed that doing the assessment of it would put them over the deadline so instead they should just go with the last unconstitutional one.

[–] Spacemanspliff@midwest.social 2 points 1 year ago

Ohio doesn't actually care if it's policy is constitutional or not. The way school districts are funded was found unconstitutional back in the 90s.nothing has changed.

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[–] CapgrasDelusion@kbin.social 34 points 1 year ago

Let me keep track of the most recent gerrymandering rulings: Republican maps violate constitution. Republican maps violate constitution. Republican maps violate constitution.

Outcome: Republicans re-submit maps that violate the constitution.

Judiciary: Well, it's close to an election, we can't make them change it now.

Ad nauseum.

[–] GreenMario@lemm.ee 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Abolish the concepts of districts and make all elections state wide. Can't gerrymander the entire state now can ya?

You fuck around and you lose your stupid "district" privileges.

[–] danielton@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's absolutely ridiculous that this is even legal.

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] danielton@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Politicians shouldn't be allowed to draw the district borders in the first place. It's a clear conflict of interest.

[–] mustardman@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is this a serious suggestion? I'm having a hard time thinking how it would work. I'm guessing each person can vote for every representative "slot"?

[–] EnglishMobster@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like how Parliaments work - proportional vote.

56% R, 39% D, 4% I = 16 Republican representatives, 11 Democratic representatives, 2 independent representatives.

[–] Sloogs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Parliamentary systems don't imply proportional representation necessarily. Commonwealth nations like Canada and the UK use the Westminster system, and use a first past the post system derived from that tradition for example. It simply depends on the country and who decided on the details of the electoral system.

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can't gerrymander the entire state now can ya?

Wyoming might have something to say about that...

[–] GreenMario@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

They have exactly one district, right? They simply don't have enough liberals there.

Wyoming is a shit state tho. Actually scratch that the nature part is great. Too bad we all can't move there and take over two senators. Only need a few thousand voting age non fascists to move in right?

[–] bemenaker@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The state SC said that in Ohio, but the GOP ignored them,and the state SC took their balls off, and did nothing about it.

[–] roboticide@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, state GOPs are figuring out that if they just ignore their state supreme courts, the two outcomes are: the opposition appeals to the federal Supreme Court with the same, or worse, outcome, or... nothing.

The states that can are at least addressing gerrymandering through ballot initiatives and state constitutional amendments. Ohio is on track for this. Ohioans shot down the attempts at undermining their ballot initiative process, and are now attempting to get a citizen redistricting commission on the 2024 ballot. We'll see how it goes.

[–] bemenaker@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Our SC could have had their own maps drawn and forced Ohio to use it, but they put their balls in their desks.

[–] roboticide@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I just assume the Ohio SC assumed if they drew their own maps they would be immediately challenged and have it go to Federal, and didn't want to risk their decision being overturned or something.

Either way, as a Michigander, I'm actually rooting for you guys. Our newly created commission made maps for last election and it was nice that the votes actually mattered this time.

[–] bemenaker@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I wasn't crazy about our amendment to fix gerrymandering last time, I thought it was flawed and exploitable. There was a lot of people who said it didn't go far enough. Turns out that sentiment was correct. We should be getting a chance to fix that soon. I know a signature drive has already been completed but I forget what is on the new attempt.

[–] Kerred@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

For more context in this article as well, the judge Lee Marsh was appointed by Rick Scott, a Republican

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago

I'm sure the next one will totally be legal. And then the next one which will be too late to change. /s

[–] wagoner@infosec.pub 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Funny how the party of patriotism and constitutional originalism keeps getting caught breaching the constitution.

[–] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

As always: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”

[–] resin85@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago

A big thanks to Marc Elias and his law firm for fighting for democracy. If you're on Mastodon his account is worth a follow to see all the fights they're taking for voting rights. https://mas.to/@marcelias/110997370778062859

[–] keet@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

So, they took a page out of Alabama's "Modern Jim Crow" map. Sigh. I'm afraid we (as I am an Alabamian) will use it to bring to SCOTUS to strike down whats left of the Voting Rights Act. If only the "email lady" had won in 2016, we would have a scotus that would actually DO something about this gerrymandering and VRA shenanigan nonsense.

The best quote for this situation comes from the video game character QBert: "$#@!".

[–] TheProtagonist@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Just change the constitution until it fits their needs…

[–] Rapidcreek@reddthat.com 3 points 1 year ago

Had to see this coming and SCOTUS already ruled on similar maps. I say this ruling hopefully sticks.

[–] spider@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago

And most likely how one district got stuck with female George Santos.

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