Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 27.7
Counties and
Congressional Districts in
Mississippi, 1992.
would have increased its number of fairly safe and
safe seats (especially the former: no point in piling
up very large majorities) and reduced the numbers
of marginals and those won by its opponent.
Morrill's neutral court plan 'reproduced' the 1970
election almost exactly, however, with many more
marginals than either party wanted and a much
more even division of the safer seats, and this was
reflected in the 1972 election result, except that
most of the marginals went to the Democrats.
In this case, the independent redistricter was
used as a check on the partisan ambitions of the
parties. This potential use of social science
cartographic skills to evaluate plans has recently
been extended much further with regard to the
third criterion, which became increasingly
