[EM] Advantages of Dirichlet Region Districts

[Michael Rouse]

	I like the idea of Voronoi polygons for automated districting, but there
since this *is* the "election methods" list, there is another possibility --
allow the people to vote for the districting method at the same time they are
voting for candidates. It might work something like:

1. Districting maps must conform to certain objective criteria.
2. Any candidate for office can offer a valid districting map.
3. Any group or political party may offer a districting map if produce a
petition with the appropriate number of signatures from registered voters.
4. On election day, voters choose both the districting method and the
political candidates they desire.
5. The districting method is decided first by whatever election method is
chosen (hopefully some Condorcet method or Approval voting).
6. Once the districting map is chosen, the votes for each candidate are
counted appropriately, and the winners chosen.

	Of course, there are a couple of problems to work out. It's possible that a
candidate might win in more than one district, so there would have to be a
way to resolve that (The district where he/she received the most votes? Allow
the candidate to choose?). Also it's possible the candidate would live in one
district but be voted in to represent another (though this is a minor issue,
IMO).

	The nice thing about it is you could vote for a Libertarian map, say, and a
Democratic candidate, or choose a League of Women Voters map and vote
Republican if you wished. Political parties would probably come up with a
single map for all of their candidates in a statewide election for
uniformity's sake, but they would still have to "sell" their districting
method -- a map that was *too* annoyingly partisan would probably cost them
more political power than a scrupulously fair one would. It would certainly
make strategy a lot more interesting. :)

	Michael Rouse

PS I apologize if this gets reposted -- I accidentally put the wrong return 
address so it got bounced to EM-admin.