Re-districting problems

Vinton M. Lampton
March 31, 2010

Silly me, I was one of 26,000 gullible citizens to sign up for California’s first Citizens’ Redistricting Commission.

I thought for a while if I signed up for the chance to work with the Redistricting Commission, I would be able to make a difference in the way our elected representatives were picked.

Wrong. This commission has already been whacked, hacked and cracked by the state Auditor’s Office and probably the Assembly, Senate and Governor, with apparently all kinds of rules and regulations to prevent an actual redrawing of districts by using only population.

They have already thrown so many exceptions in the way that the districts will be gerrymandered, for all intents, the way the politicians have done it for years, to protect the incumbents and special-interest groups.

We are all Americans.

So why should these districts not be selected by a computer program that uses the census population figures then feed in the number of districts needed for state Assembly, Senate and House of Representatives, and let the computer do an equitable job instead of throwing all kinds of roadblocks in the way?