[EM] Theoretical Gerrymandering Solution

[Steven Barney]

Matt?:

This sounds somewhat promising. Can you cite any sources on the mathematically unsolvable nature of this problem, or expand on that a little bit?


Thank you very much,
SB

----- Original Message --

Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 21:31:40 -0500 (EST)
From: matt at tidalwave.net
Subject: [EM] Theoretical Gerrymandering Solution

>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

It is not mathematically solvable and it arguably doesn't need to be.
There are optimization heuristics that will find reasonably "good" results
in a reasonable amount of time.  Furthermore, since re-districting occurs
(or should occur) only once every ten years, there can be a public contest
open to universities, business, individuals, etc. that gives a reward to
whoever obtains the smallest sum (ties could be broken by giving the award
to the contestant who first submitted the smallest sum).

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