Partisan gerrymandering with geographically compact districts. (16th January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alexeev, Boris; Mixon, Dustin G.
• Is Part Of: Journal of applied probability. Volume 55:Number 4(2018)
• Page Start: 1046
• Page End: 1059
• Publication Date: 2019-01-16
• Subjects: Gerrymandering, -- Brownian motion; Primary 60G50, -- Secondary 60J65; 519.2
• DOI: 10.1017/jpr.2018.70
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9002

Abstract

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.