[EM] Theoretical Gerrymandering Solution

[Curt Siffert]

The problem is that the very decision of how to approach boundaries is 
a political decision.  Since Democrats tend to clump together in very 
small regions, then having extremely regular shapes (or having areas 
that match up to city or county boundaries) can lead to single 
districts with a very lopsided Democratic balance, which then can 
become a pro-Republican gerrymander.

Unfortunately, the question of what balance of Democrats to Republicans 
(to others) the state delegation should reflect is a political 
question, too.  If one were to say that the ratio of Democratic 
representatives to Republican representatives should basically reflect 
the ratio of Democratic voters to Republican voters *statewide*, you'd 
probably even have argument on that point.

I think that it's best to focus on a strategy that would lead to the 
districts being as *responsive* (competitive) as possible.  
Anti-incumbency, as much as possible.  And a method that would have 
that as an aim should show how that would be achieved.


On Feb 14, 2005, at 2:11 PM, Steven Barney wrote:

> Many of the states are now focusing on the gerrymandering or 
> redistricting problem. It seems to me that one possible solution may 
> be to require that length of boundaries of all the state senate 
> districts in the state, for example, have the minimum, or close to the 
> minimum sum total. My intuition is that this would mean that the 
> districts would have to be as close to being regular polygons as 
> possible, since, for example, the 4 sided polygon with the shortest 
> boundary is a square, and the infinite sided polygon with the shortest 
> boundary is the circle. Is this a good idea?
>
> If we had to redistrict a rectangular state, such as Wyoming, it seems 
> to me that might be a reasonable possible solution. However, I am 
> concerned about irregular states, such as, say, Wisconsin, which 
> includes a lot of squiggly border lines and even some islands. I don't 
> even know if this is a mathematically solvable problem. What do you 
> think?
>
>
> Steve Barney
>
>
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