[EM] Gerrymandering

[Richard Fobes]

On 12/3/2012 5:00 AM, Jonathan Denn wrote:
> Fair Redistricting or Ending Gerrymandering is always a great
> "grievance" among electoral reformers. But the "solution" is
 > much more elusive. Do you folks ever venture into that area?

Yes.  "VoteFair ranking" includes "VoteFair representation ranking" and 
"VoteFair partial-proportional ranking" which, together, eliminate the 
need to care about where district boundaries are drawn (as long as they 
contain the same number of eligible voters).

Here is a web page that gives an overview and contains links to the details:

http://www.votefair.org/calculation_details.html

To clarify, some other election-method experts (here and elsewhere) 
advocate trying to make the district-boundary-drawing process as "fair" 
as possible, such as by using mathematics or an "impartial jury."  In 
contrast, I advocate using a method that produces roughly equivalent 
results regardless of where the boundaries are drawn.

The European PR (proportional representation) systems also use this 
gerrymandering-resistant approach.  However, PR uses single-mark 
ballots.  The result is that PR looks good based on measuring the party 
balance in parliament, yet PR elects the wrong candidates from the major 
parties.

Richard Fobes