Gerrymandering

There has been a lot of talk about prohibiting the redrawing of districts based on partisan voting patterns. Even if such a law were passed, how would you prove that someone violated it?

CITIZEN: Did you redraw the districts to help your own party?
POLITICIAN: Of course not! I merely wanted to ensure that each district had a proportionate number of (blue collar workers, farmers, middle class homeowners, minorities, or any demographic group that just happens to vote a certain way.)

So if the state legislature really, truly wants to prevent gerrymandering, then it should adopt guidelines that would make the practice harder. For example, the boundaries of a district should not snake in and out of residential neighborhoods. Whenever possible, cities should be divided into as few state rep and senate districts as possible. With every state rep district containing about 61,000 residents and every state senate district containing 122,000 residents, Fort Wayne's urban population would be better represented by 4 state reps and 2 state senators who represent only Fort Wayne and not surrounding rural areas. Four percent of Hoosiers live in Fort Wayne, so it should naturally follow that 4% of the General Assembly be from this city.