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Today's Poll: Should a goal of legislative redistricting be to protect incumbency?

By Howard B. Owens
Bob Harker

IF governor Cuomo keeps his word and forces the legislators to adopt the plan submitted by Common Cause, he will gain even more respect from this conservative.

Mar 1, 2012, 11:39am Permalink
Ed Gentner

Districts should be a non-partisan issue the, the goal being an roughly equal number of registered memebers of each of the two main parties.

Mar 1, 2012, 1:42pm Permalink
Mike Weaver

I see no reason why the districts can't be roughly rectangular in shape. Adjust the size of the individual rectangles to get a relatively even number of constituents in each district. In more rural districts the rectangles can be reduced in area to reflect reasonable driving distances for the representatives.

Alternatively, and at bare minimum they should follow town lines.

Any system that is designed first and foremost to retain incumbents is not designed with the voting public's best interests in mind.

Mar 1, 2012, 8:07pm Permalink
C. M. Barons

Congressional and state legislative districts should respect county boundaries. Any neutral person armed with current census records, county maps and a calculator could formulate districts that are demographically valid and partisanship blind. I vote we assign the project to the Yorkers Club. The best draft can be selected at the annual convention and submitted to the governor for adoption.

Mar 2, 2012, 5:14am Permalink

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