From Governing: Which States, Districts Are Most Gerrymandered?

Here's an analysis - from a year ago - which attempts to measure which congressional districts are the most gerrymandered. It highlights four ways to measure it, many try to determine how compact a districts is. The less compact, the more it is gerrymandered.

The state with the most gerrymandered districts? Maryland

Maryland stood out in the report, with the state’s new boundaries registering the lowest average compactness score for three out of four measures. Analysts identified Maryland’s 6th Congressional District spanning the western part of the state and the 3rd Congressional District, which crisscrosses areas around Baltimore and the western shoreline, as two extremely contorted districts. U.S. District Judge Paul Niemeyer recently dubbed the 3rd District as “reminiscent of a broken-winged pterodactyl, lying prostrate” across central Maryland.

Activists responded by collecting enough signatures to challenge the new map.

Democrats currently hold six of Maryland’s eight U.S. House seats. Gov. Martin O’Malley and other Democratic Party officials endorsed the ballot measure to retain the map, known as Question 5, while Republicans oppose it. If voters reject the measure, lawmakers must go back to the drawing board and establish new boundaries before the 2014 Congressional Elections.

Texas is 15th

The story points out - not surprisingly - that independent commissions produce the least gerrymandered districts, while legislatures produce the most.

Here are the 10 most gerrymandered distritcs in the nation: NC-12, FL-5, MD-3, OH-9, TX-35, NC-4, LA-2, FL-22, MD-6 and NY-10.

Click on the stpry to see the map.