[EM] Theoretical Issues In Districting

[James Gilmour]

There is an ISO standard for "Geographic information -- Geodetic codes and parameters" (ISO/TS 19127:2005) but there do not appear
to be any ISO standards for "census" or "population".

The interest expressed here may be exclusively for USA, but other countries take very different approaches from that in the US.  For
example, by using the resister of electors rather than the population census.  Some have very prescriptive limits and automatic
triggers for redistricting while others are very relaxed in almost every aspect.

A redistricting exercise is currently in progress in the UK, following the decision to reduce the number of MPs in the House of
Commons (UK Parliament lower house) from 650 to 600.  The Boundary Commission for Scotland has brought a lot of relevant information
and data together on its website at:	
  http://www.bcomm-scotland.gov.uk/6th_westminster/

(There are separate Parliamentary Boundary Commissions for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  There are also separate
Boundary Commissions for Local Government within each part of the UK.)

On a related topic, the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland has conducted a consultation on how to determine the
appropriate numbers of councillors for the councils that serve the 32 very different local government areas within Scotland:	
  http://www.lgbc-scotland.gov.uk/reviews/councillor_numbers_2011/

James Gilmour


> -----Original Message-----
> From: election-methods-bounces at lists.electorama.com
> [mailto:election-methods-bounces at lists.electorama.com] On 
> Behalf Of Warren Smith
> Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2011 3:39 PM
> To: Kristofer Munsterhjelm
> Cc: electionscience; Michael McDonald; election-methods
> Subject: Re: [EM] Theoretical Issues In Districting
> 
> 
> > ISO standard...
> 
> --that's an interesting idea.  Is there an ISO standard for
> geographic and census data? If there were, that'd be a good 
> step toward solving districting problem in practice.
> 
> --
> Warren D. Smith
> http://RangeVoting.org  <-- add your endorsement (by clicking 
> "endorse" as 1st step) and math.temple.edu/~wds/homepage/works.html
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