I think it's important to consider the metric of the "distance" to the polling place(s), as well as the "distance" to others in the district. Distance in quotes because getting from A to B is dependent on many things besides physical distance. For example, A and B could be 100 meters apart but on opposite sides of a highway or river with no nearby crossings. Time between A and B might be better, but that still might depend on modes of conveyance and that might vary between people of different means. So measuring the "goodness" of a districting probably requires various kinds of map data in addition to population data. Of course, if we had a way of secure remote voting, some of these considerations could go away. But I won't argue that the ability of people to physically get together isn't important. On 06-Apr-18 13:44, Henry Baker wrote:
I already live/vote in the worst gerrymandered district in California, and perhaps the nation (CA#24).
I agree with Brent that metrical compactness isn't the main problem -- especially in this age of the Internet.
But even if some sort of metric could be defined, I don't believe that the solutions are unique, and would depend substantially on the overall shape of the state.
Suppose that one had a very long thin state which forced all of the districts into *line segments* -- i.e., each person lives "closer" (under the chosen metric) to a state border than to any other person.
If the total state population is less than the number needed for 2 Representatives, then we have only 1 Representative for the entire state and we're done and unique.
Suppose we have enough total state population for 2 Representatives. We need to find the dividing line that separates the population with a difference of at most 1. If the state has an odd number of people, then we have two solutions, so no uniqueness.
If we have enough population for 3 Representatives, then we need to find 2 dividing lines, which provides for 2 sources of non-uniqueness.
Suppose now that our state consists of 2 disconnected pieces -- e.g., Michigan. How does the metric work between the disconnected pieces?
We could even have a dumb-bell-shaped state, or a panhandle state. Do we use a different metric in the panhandle?
If we have a more-or-less compact 2D state, we could start with a Voronoi diagram about each person. But what if the population density was maximal along a lazy river which approximated a space-filling curve through the whole of the state?
At 09:56 PM 4/5/2018, Brent Meeker wrote:
I don't think bad boundaries is the problem.
In many cases geometric proximity isn't a measure of common interests. <snip> On 4/5/2018 7:52 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
It's been nearly four years since we discussed gerrymandering.
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