An impossibility theorem for gerrymandering

DOI10.1080/00029890.2018.1517571MaRDI QIDQ4559664zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Boris Alexeev, Dustin G. Mixon

Publication date 4 December 2018

Published in The American Mathematical Monthly (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.04193

zbMATH Keywords

bizarrely-shaped districtsunconstitutional partisan gerrymandering

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Convex sets in (2) dimensions (including convex curves) (52A10) Voting theory (91B12) History, political science (91F10)

Abstract: The U.S. Supreme Court is currently deliberating over whether a proposed mathematical formula should be used to detect unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering. We show that in some cases, this formula will only flag bizarrely shaped districts as potentially constitutional.

Recommendations

• Measuring political gerrymandering
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Cites work

• A formula goes to court: partisan gerrymandering and the efficiency gap
• The isoperimetric inequality

Cited in

(10)

• Fair redistricting is hard
• Gerrymandering and Convexity
• The self-limiting partisan gerrymander: an optimization approach
• Geometry in the courtroom
• Gerrymandering, sandwiches, and topology
• A formula goes to court: partisan gerrymandering and the efficiency gap
• Measuring political gerrymandering
• Measuring partisan fairness
• Political geometry. Rethinking redistricting in the US with math, law, and everything in between
• Book review of: I. Volić, Making democracy count: how mathematics improves voting, electoral maps, and representation

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