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Reviving Legislative Avenues for Gerrymandering Reform with a Flexible, Automated Tool

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2020

James Saxon Open the ORCID record for James Saxon [Opens in a new window]
James Saxon*
Affiliation:
Harris School of Public Policy and Center for Spatial Data Science, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL60637, USA. Email: jsaxon@uchicago.edu
*
*Email: jsaxon@uchicago.edu
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Abstract

After seeking a “manageable standard” to apply to claims of partisan gerrymandering for over three decades, the Supreme Court has finally given up the chase, ruling that such claims are nonjusticiable. What is to be done? An extended history of successful congressional action suggests that the legislative pathway is more practical than often believed. Statutory requirements also make it possible to consider a broader suite of districting objectives. This paper presents a flexible new software and a framework for evaluating the practical implications of explicit objectives. I apply this approach to the conditions last required by Congress, generating equipopulous, contiguous, and compact districts. Among these conditions, the formal definition of compactness has proven contentious. Does it matter? I contrast the representation of the political parties and of racial and ethnic minorities under plans optimized according to 18 different definitions of compactness. On these grounds, the definitions are markedly consistent. These methods may be extended to alternative districting objectives and criteria.

Keywords

data analysis algorithmsspatial analysisspatial modelinggerrymanderingredistricting
Type
Articles
Information
Political Analysis , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , July 2020 , pp. 372 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Political Methodology.

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Footnotes

Contributing Editor: Jeff Gill

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