Tennessee Republicans eliminated the state’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional district after the supreme court gutted part of the Voting Rights Act
push Democrats to promote having a computer program draw Congressional districts
Gerrymandered districts are all generated using computer programs. They have been since the late 1970s: I know that because I knew people who worked on developing that software for a conservative think tank. I was trying to convince then to sabotage it, but they didn’t, and now here we are. What matters is not whether it’s an automated process: it’s what the algorithm within that process does that’s the important part.
There’s a near-infinite number of ways to draw district boundaries. To not produce gerrymandered districts, an algorithm would have to not only meet topological and legislative requirements (e.g., compactness, relative size and contiguity) but also to comply with a set of fairness criteria. If there are steep spatial gradients in terms of voting preference, even nice, compact districts could still be placed to minimize representation of one voting group and improve the representation of another (though the effect is probably even more extreme if you can ignore the compactness requirement).
Cool story about Jerry bypassing the Maginot line, though.
Yes, a computer program can be designed to gerrymander, but the US government should have companies bid for a program that would draw districts. The winning program would be subject to peer review and required to be used by all states.
Actually, there is another way to prevent gerrymandering, proportional representation. However, I think using a computer program is better.
Like the Battle of France, there are solutions to prevent gerrymandering if people are willing to try them.
Gerrymandered districts are all generated using computer programs. They have been since the late 1970s: I know that because I knew people who worked on developing that software for a conservative think tank. I was trying to convince then to sabotage it, but they didn’t, and now here we are. What matters is not whether it’s an automated process: it’s what the algorithm within that process does that’s the important part.
There’s a near-infinite number of ways to draw district boundaries. To not produce gerrymandered districts, an algorithm would have to not only meet topological and legislative requirements (e.g., compactness, relative size and contiguity) but also to comply with a set of fairness criteria. If there are steep spatial gradients in terms of voting preference, even nice, compact districts could still be placed to minimize representation of one voting group and improve the representation of another (though the effect is probably even more extreme if you can ignore the compactness requirement).
Cool story about Jerry bypassing the Maginot line, though.
Yes, a computer program can be designed to gerrymander, but the US government should have companies bid for a program that would draw districts. The winning program would be subject to peer review and required to be used by all states.
Actually, there is another way to prevent gerrymandering, proportional representation. However, I think using a computer program is better.
Like the Battle of France, there are solutions to prevent gerrymandering if people are willing to try them.