Partisan gerrymandering with geographically compact districts

DOI10.1017/JPR.2018.70zbMATH Open1405.60058arXiv1712.05390OpenAlexW2772189032WikidataQ128580579 ScholiaQ128580579MaRDI QIDQ4611268FDOQ4611268

Authors: Boris Alexeev, Dustin G. Mixon 

Publication date: 17 January 2019

Published in: Journal of Applied Probability (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Bizarrely shaped voting districts are frequently lambasted as likely instances of gerrymandering. In order to systematically identify such instances, researchers have devised several tests for so-called geographic compactness (i.e., shape niceness). We demonstrate that under certain conditions, a party can gerrymander a competitive state into geographically compact districts to win an average of over 70% of the districts. Our results suggest that geometric features alone may fail to adequately combat partisan gerrymandering.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.05390

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zbMATH Keywords

gerrymanderingBrownian motion

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Sums of independent random variables; random walks (60G50) Brownian motion (60J65)

Cites Work

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• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Gerrymandering, sandwiches, and topology
• A formula goes to court: partisan gerrymandering and the efficiency gap
• On the trivariate joint distribution of Brownian motion and its maximum and minimum

Cited In (11)

• A formula goes to court: partisan gerrymandering and the efficiency gap
• Gerrymandering in a hierarchical legislature
• Redistricting and district compactness
• The self-limiting partisan gerrymander: an optimization approach
• An impossibility theorem for gerrymandering
• Measuring legislative boundaries
• Gerrymandering, sandwiches, and topology
• Fair redistricting is hard
• ELECTORAL MALDISTRICTING
• Gerrymandering and Convexity
• Explainer: compactness, by the numbers

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