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<div>Initially, the nation should be divided into districts such
that the number of districts is not less than (10?) times the number of
seats to be allocated and are contiguous.<br>
<br>
These districts cannot be modified after the initial allocation, except
once when new census information is collected according to these rules<br>
<br>
- the threshold shall be the one tenth of the total population per seat to be allocated<br>
<br>
- a district must be divided into 2 contiguous
districts if it has a population greater than double the threshold,
such that the 2 resulting districts have populations larger than the
threshold. The boundary that divides the district into two parts
shall not be longer than one and a half times the shortest
possible boundary that would divide the district into two valid
parts. If no valid boundary is provided by the legislature, the
SC shall use the shortest boundary to divide the district. This rule shall also apply to the resulting districts.<br>
<br>
- two or more districts may be combined into a single district as long
as the resulting district has a population less than the
threshold. The resulting district must be contiguous.<br>
<br>
- no other changes are <span class="correction" id="">permitted</span><br>
<br>
(an <span class="correction" id="">alternative</span> rule to the above
would work too. Basically, these districts should be hard to
change. However, they should also be kept <span class="correction" id="">alot</span> smaller than the final districts).<br>
<br>
The above districts shall be known as the Initial Districts<br>
<br>
The election districts shall be decided as follows:<br>
<br>
1) The districts shall be set to the Initial Districts<br>
<br>
2) If the number of districts is greater than the number of seats to be filled, combine the two <span class="correction" id="">neighbouring</span> districts that have the smallest total population into a single district and <span class="correction" id="">goto</span> 2)<br>
<br>
<br>
This works even better for <span class="correction" id="">PR-STV</span> or asset voting type districts<br>
<br>
1) Set the districts equal to the counties<br>
<br>
2) Distribute seats <span class="correction" id="">among</span> the districts using the <span class="correction" id="">d'hondt</span> method<br>
<br>
3) If any district gets fewer than (4) seats, combine the two <span class="correction" id="">neighbouring</span> districts which have the lowest total population into one district and <span class="correction" id="">goto</span> 2)<br>
<br>
By increasing the number of seats in step 3, greater voter to seat ratio accuracy can be achieved.<br>
<br>
Also, the smaller the populations of the Initial Districts, the closer the resulting districts would be to well balanced.<br>
<br>
Another option would be to use boundary length as part of the algorithm.<br>
<br>
Like:<br>
<br>
2) If the number of districts is greater than the number of seats to be
filled, combine the two neighbouring districts where the resulting
district has the smallest total boundary length and where the resulting
district has a population less than the largest district. If no
such combination is possible, combine the two neighbouring districts
that have the smallest total population into a single district and goto
2)<br>
</div>
<div> <br>
I think there may be issues near the end with the scheme though as the
districts will be large. For example, if you had 10 districts at
around 10% of the population and 9 seats, then combining any 2 would
give one district at 20%.<br>
<br>
Maybe there would need to be a second pass to balance out the
sizes. This is less of a problem is the districts are multi seat
districts.<br>
<br>
Another option is to use the multi-seat distribution method with a
smallest size district of 1 and apply the algorithm recursively if any
of the districts end up with more than 1 seat (and keep going until all
districts gets at least 1 seat).<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
<div style="clear: both;"><span class="correction" id="">Raphfrk</span><br>
--------------------<br>
Interesting site<br>
"what if anyone could modify the laws"<br>
<br>
<span class="correction" id="">www</span>.<span class="correction" id="">wikocracy</span>.<span class="correction" id="">com</span></div>
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