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the lurking ecologist's avatar

Here are mine ...

No particular order.

Alaska*

Kansas

Ohio*^

Nebraska*^

Montana*^

*Has an initiative process that could defang gerrymandering

^elects state supreme court justices (Kansas Bar determines theirs, Alaska has a commission of bar-appointed and Gov-appointed members that pick)

These are all pretty small states, except Ohio. Seems like some investment should go into at least one larger state. But they seem to provide some hint of sunlight for the Dems. The ability to block gerrymandering and elect judges means they could follow Michigan's path and fix structural issues that block progress. I considered Iowa, Missouri, and Mississippi. The judicial situation doesn't look favorable in Iowa or Missouri. Better in MS, but I'm skeptical that electoral reform would pass there.

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Kildere53's avatar

The Ohio redistricting referendum failed because the amendment would've required the districts' partisan lean to match that of the state, which was a dumb idea from the start and, as OH Republicans used to their advantage, would've required more gerrymandering.

The Republicans' usual redistricting strategy (in all the states they control, not just Ohio) is to pack urban areas into a small number of deep-blue districts and then combine light-blue suburbs with dark-red rural areas to create their Republican districts. A better idea would be to put an amendment on the ballot that requires that, to the greatest extent possible, contiguous urban and suburban areas to be in different districts from the surrounding rural areas. This would 1) prevent them from eliminating Landsman's seat, 2) force the creation of a new all-suburban district in Columbus that would lean Dem, and 3) either shore up Kaptur significantly or create another Dem-leaning district in northeastern Ohio.

It's highly unfortunate that states like NC, GA, TN, and TX don't have ballot initiatives, because an amendment like this would significantly curtail Republican gerrymandering in those states.

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