The fairest solution to redistricting

The next round of redistricting is the subject of much talk this year. The Democrats in the legislature want to overturn the commission, because the pool of candidates isn't diverse enough. Rather or not the commission or the legislature draws the districts, the partisanship will still be present in the process, because the commission isn't non-partisan. The path to fair districts is to set a benchmark on how districts on drawn, not just who draws them. Redistricting should be based on statewide voter registration numbers, with legislators or commissioners only being permitted to draw a certain number of safe seats for a party.

Here's how the current voter registration numbers look for California:

Democrats 44.6
Republicans 30.8
Independents 20.2

Breaking down the numbers, for the assembly that would mean Democrats would get to have 35 seats with majority or strong plurality, Republicans would get 24 and 16 would be swing seats. The numbers for the State Senate and Congress would be based on the same percentages and allow for 8 and 10 swing seats respectively. The size of the current districts might make it hard to draw that many competitive districts, but it wouldn't be impossible. There are many traditionally swing areas in California that have been marginalized to make Democratic and Republican safe seats and that has really hurt the process because it has created an unwillingness to compromise. With more swing seats in play, it would make finding more middle ground appealing and encourage legislators to work together. Using criteria like this insures fair districts, while preserving voter party preference.