Yep, those are congressional districts

It's that once-every-10-years time again, when states use the latest U.S. Census data to redraw their congressional district maps, and as the graphic above shows, sometimes they get pretty creative. The flurry of activity is just the start of the high-stakes process that will affect congressional power for the next decade. The biggest states are still to come—as well as deadlines, lawsuits, and the potential for lots of court-drawn midterm maps. However, a number of states have proposed or finalized their maps in the past week, and a recurrent theme has emerged: protecting incumbents rather than expanding majorities. —Axios

• — Georgia. Gerrymandering experts are circling Georgia, one of the nation's newest swing states, to monitor its upcoming special legislative session, when state lawmakers will formally redraw state and congressional political maps. Late last week, leaders of the GOP-controlled State Senate released the first draft of its proposed political maps. As expected, the majority party tilted the scales in its own favor, as Democrats did when they last controlled the Capitol in 2001. However, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project says the map is not as bad as it could be. The special session begins on Nov. 3. —Axios
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• — Pennsylvania. State lawmakers in Pennsylvania are divided by a question that has become highly partisan: How should incarcerated people be counted for redistricting purposes? The commission that draws the state's district maps has opted to count the roughly 40,000 state prisoners in the districts where they're originally from, but the GOP-controlled state legislature plans to ignore the change and keep counting prisoners in the districts where they're locked up. Republicans argue that living in a prison means you become a part of the surrounding community, while Democrats counter that prisoners don't choose where they are incarcerated and aren't functioning members of that community. —WESA
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• — Texas. The non-partisan Fair Maps Coalition, along with the Texas Asian American Pacific Islander Redistricting Coalition and the voting rights organization All on the Line, testified on Texas' newly released House map proposal at the State House and Senate's committee hearing earlier this week. According to Fair Maps, the state's redistricting proposal could reduce the number of districts in which communities of color elect candidates by choice. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, 95% of Texas' population growth has been driven by such communities. —NBC News

'Threats targeting election officials are threats against our Constitution'

Sen. Jon Ossoff introduced the Election Worker and Polling Place Protection Act this week to broaden protections for election workers—from officials to volunteers to the contractors who set up and maintain voting equipment. The protections also would extend to family members of election officials and prohibit threats of damage to polling places, tabulation centers, or other election infrastructure. The measure cites two recent Reuters reports about threats of physical harm and death against election workers across the country. "At this moment of peril for our democracy, my bill will strengthen federal laws protecting election workers and polling places from violent threats and acts of violence," Ossoff said. The measure currently has no co-sponsors, but Ossoff is seeking bipartisan support. —WHBL

MORE: Voting Laws Roundup: October 2021 —Brennan Center for Justice

Rubin: It's all on you, Democrats

"Democrats must push through voting reforms that at a bare minimum take on election subversion, which threatens to throw the 2022 midterm elections into doubt and may even ignite the sort of violence seen on Jan. 6. The GOP has maintained its war on election integrity and access; Democrats—for the sake of the country and our democracy—cannot afford to surrender." —Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post

Jennifer Rubin is an attorney and political opinion columnist at The Washington Post.

MORE: Texas legislation would allow partisan actors to request election audits —NPR

House set to tackle corruption

The Pandora Papers, an expose led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that has revealed a global network of hidden transactions and assets, has inspired a new bipartisan bill in Congress. Dubbed the ENABLERS Act, the bill will likely be introduced on Friday, the latest of several recent efforts in Washington to take on global corruption. The legislation would require lawyers, investment advisers, art dealers, realtors, accountants, public relations firms, and others to engage in some form of due diligence to ensure their clients aren't paying with or trying to move around money of suspicious origin. "It is incumbent upon democracies to purge the dirty money in our systems, deny corrupt foreign officials safe haven, and stand with the victims of kleptocracy," said Reps. John Curtis and Tom Malinowski, co-chairs of a new congressional caucus against kleptocracy. Stay tuned. —Politico

MORE: Sen. Elizabeth Warren says Fed suffers from 'culture of corruption' —The Wall Street Journal

Burden: How ranked-choice voting could make a difference

"Members of Congress often seem to be focused on whipping up their rabid partisan supporters instead of serving a broad swath of the public. It is not hard to see why politicians are inclined to play to the party base. In a two-party system where each voter picks one candidate they want to win, politicians are incentivized to turn out their backers rather than reach out to the other side. It is a system that often rewards the most inflammatory voices rather than the consensus builders. … [RCV] would almost certainly give voters more choices, including multiple candidates from the major parties and some non-major party alternatives." —Barry Burden in The Capital Times

Barry Burden is a professor of political science and the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

MORE: Eight Utah County cities preparing for ranked-choice voting ballots —Daily Herald

Focus on extremism in the military

It's been nearly 12 years since the deadly mass shooting at the Fort Hood military base, where 13 people were killed and 30 others injured by a U.S. Army major who had been radicalized by Islamic extremists. Since that time, the armed services have struggled to comply with a 2011 executive order to improve their security-clearance process, which features an initial investigation but generally no follow-up for five or more years. That is about to change, as the Pentagon rolls out "continuous vetting."

• — All Defense Department personnel will be subject to an ongoing vetting process designed to spot extremists and other insider threats, Pentagon officials announced yesterday. The new system will raise flags when novel information arrives, such as when a DOD employee is arrested. Surveillance of troops' and DOD employees' social media posts for extremist views or behavior will follow soon.
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• — The decision is likely to receive pushback. The department is grappling with extremism of all varieties among uniformed and civilian personnel. For example, at least 50 service members have been charged with participating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. However, conservatives have accused the Biden Administration and senior U.S. military leaders of purging right-wing free speech.

1. — The DOD also faces big questions about what data is useful for what outcome. Some records, such as an arrest report or an internal report from a separate security agency, lend themselves to swift action. But social media postings, even those that hint at violence or anti-government action, are more difficult to analyze, since threats may be hyperbolic rather than literal. But the Pentagon says bringing in more data continuously to fill out the picture will allow it to take appropriate action, if any. —Defense One

The Economist: How far apart are we really?

"Political scientists have several hypotheses for why partisan sorting has occurred [in the U.S.]. One explanation is America's two-party system, which makes it easier to form strong political identities than in countries with several major parties, where holding views that cross party lines is more common. Another is the growth of media outlets that increasingly appeal to partisan viewpoints. Fox News was started in 1996, and social polarization accelerated sharply in the years afterwards. Political scientists also point to inequality and the growing population of racial minorities in America, but a consensus has yet to emerge. So has political polarization grown in America? In one sense, yes. The link between someone's social identity, political ideology, and party appears to be growing stronger. But in terms of their positions on many issues, Americans have not grown to be as extreme. This has led to a paradox of polarization. Despite agreeing on much, Americans dislike each other more than ever." —The Economist

MORE: How partisan politics threatened even must-pass legislation in Congress —U.S. News & World Report

Steven B. from Florida, I laughed aloud over your delightful word "hullabalogna"…and then I sighed, because it's all too accurate. I consider myself a moderate Dem, mostly for lack of better alternatives. If a viable "left-center to right-center" party came into being, I'd jump ship in a nanosecond to join it! —Anne D., Michigan

I voted for a Democrat for president for the first time since 1980 because of what the Republicans have become. I would love to feel I have a home there, but that would take a drastic change. I only wish I lived in Utah now to vote for Evan. Good luck! —Ann B., South Carolina

Hurray! As a Utah resident, I'll be thrilled to vote (again) for Evan. I'm sure he'll be doing some fundraising, and I'd be happy to contribute. —Read G., Utah

Utah is unique: a populace that is essentially conservative...valuing marriage, family, faith, and hard work...confronted by a "leader" of the GOP who is thrice-married, ignored his children, never attended church, and "made" his money through dubious schemes, peddling garbage to the gullible.

If life is high school, Donald Trump is the rich kid who makes fun of poor kids who wear cheap sneakers and gets fresh with the girls, and Mike Lee follows after him: laughing at his jokes, fetching his cokes, lighting his smokes, all in the hope that Trump may give him a ride in his red Corvette.

Utah will see him as a supplicant to a sociopath. And reject him. —Jim V., New York

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.