";s:4:"text";s:15675:"Gerrymandering is the act of politicians manipulating the redrawing of legislative district lines in order to help their friends and hurt their enemies. Ever since then, gerrymandering has been an issue. Moreover, the complexity of the districting task may exceed human capacities. ... As the name states, compactness metrics checks by how much value, a district is “compact”. This can tend to minimize the negative partisan effect of existing gerrymandering, but I will show that it doesn’t actually solve the problem. Gerrymandering is the manipulation of voting district lines in order to favor a particular political party, ... and some are drawn to create compact districts. There are many compactness metrics but for now we will be focussing on 4 metrics namely: What a word. Gerrymandering is the act of purposely constructing voting districts which favor a particular electoral outcome. The term is derived from the name of Gov. Gerrymandering, in U.S. politics, the practice of drawing the boundaries of electoral districts in a way that gives one political party an unfair advantage over its rivals (political or partisan gerrymandering) or that dilutes the voting power of members of ethnic or linguistic minority groups (racial gerrymandering). Gerrymandering! Gerrymander Portraitist Gilbert C. Stuart's depiction of an 1812 Massachusetts redistricting scheme favoring the political party of Governor Elbridge Gerry was the inspiration for the term gerrymander. Gerrymandering violates the principle of equal representation, which demands that an equal number of voters be represented by an equal number of representatives. In the simplest definition of the term, gerrymandering is when a political district map is redrawn to favor a class or party in the elections. Definition 1. Gerrymandering violates the principle of equal representation, which demands that an equal number of voters be represented by an equal number of representatives. Since drawing compact districts is not a cure-all, solving the gerrymandering problem also requires ways to measure how biased a given map is. About Us. Gerrymandering definition: Gerrymandering is the practice of setting boundaries of electoral districts to favor specific political interests within legislative bodies, often resulting in districts with convoluted, winding boundaries rather than compact areas. By constitution or statute, 32 states require their legislative districts to be reasonably compact; 17 states require congressional districts to be compact as well. Namely, if you run scenarios on non-gerrymandered, compact districts, you don’t get very “fair” results as defined by the above statistical bias test. The term was coined in reference to a plan signed by Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), the governor of Massachusetts from 1810 to 1812. The most common state constitutional provisions affecting political gerrymandering are those that require districts to be compact and/or contiguous. Introduction to Gerrymandering ... District G is more compact than District E ... To get a sense of what the term connotes, please use the following casual definition and complete the example. Gerrymandering refers to the intentional manipulation of district boundaries for individual or partisan gain. They may seek to help one party win extra seats (a partisan gerrymander), make incumbents of both parties safer (an incumbent-protection gerrymander) or target particular incumbents who have fallen out of favor. That means that Republican states might be much less likely to join the compact. To learn about how to identify and solve gerrymandering, read the second post here.). Finally, there are a few other structural weaknesses of the US voting system, including the electoral college and non-preferential voting, but let’s focus on one thing at once. The real definition of compactness is that a space is compact if every open cover of the space has a finite subcover. What is gerrymandering definition From Ballotpedia The term gerrymandering refers to the practice of drawing electoral district lines to favor one political party, individual, or constituency over another. Gerrymandering, in other words, is the practice of setting boundaries of electoral districts to favor specific political interests within legislative bodies, often resulting in districts with convoluted, winding boundaries rather than compact areas. In a paper posted on arXiv.org, the researchers describe a computerized method for dividing state populations evenly into compact polygonal districts that average six or fewer sides. It merely shifts it somewhere else. Typically, courts define a contiguous district Few states define precisely what “compactness” means, but a district in which people generally live near each other is usually more compact than one in which they do not. (This is the first post in a two-part series on gerrymandering. With political tension running high and the Supreme Court set to establish historic precedence on partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin, it is useful to understand the different types of gerrymandering and some possible solutions. The neatly arrayed districts are a stark contrast to gerrymandered districts, which are stretched and contorted to provide an overall congressional advantage for one political party or another. Definition: I can call District G compact if the smallest circle that can cover my district isn’t unreasonably large (in Using power diagrams to simulate hundreds of maps for every state in the country, I find that a purely compactness-based approach would result in small but noticeable reductions in minority representation. To deter gerrymandering, many state constitutions require legislative districts to be "compact." A more rigorous definition of gerrymandering. Partisan gerrymandering poses a threat to democracy. Note: Information on the districting principles, or criteria, used by each state as it redrew legislative and congressional districts for the 2010 Census and beyond is available at Districting Principles for 2010 and Beyond.. About This NCSL Project. Districts should be generally compact, but legal stipulation is limited. Higher the value, better is the compactness of that district. The authors of the 2011 map were able to preserve relatively compact and even-looking districts. Yet, the law offers few precise definitions other than "you know it when you see it," which effectively implies a common understanding of the concept. But a fair district doesn’t favor or disadvantage a particular interest, candidate, party, or community. For instance, 37 states require that districts be “compact,” but only a few bother to specify what that means. What is Gerrymandering? A Case of Gender Gerrymandering ... Their plan has made a mockery of communities of interest, it is not compact and contiguous and they have engaged in diluting the influence of minority voters. In history, political districts were redrawn to under-represent minorities and favor white voters. Today, the GOP is winning the gerrymandering battle. While these two criteria are technically distinct from one another, they often operate together. Problems With Gerrymandering Detection There’s a problem, though, which was detected by, among other people, political scientists Jowei Chen and Jonathan Rodden. Gerrymandering process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power; the designation of voting districts so as to favor a particular political party or candidate; The Excess Vote Technique (Concentrate one group in a district); The Wasted Vote Technique (Break up concentrations of voters); The Stacked Vote Technique (Groups power bases together) Tufts University professor Moon Duchin , PhD’05, thinks she can help—both in providing a better definition of compactness, and in bringing her fellow mathematicians into … Gerrymandering, in other words, is the practice of setting boundaries of electoral districts to favor specific political interests within legislative bodies, often resulting in districts with convoluted, winding boundaries rather than compact areas. Contiguity is the simpler of the two criteria. Debates over the level of gerrymandering present in a certain shape usually revolve around the compactness of the shape.A compact shape minimizes the distance between each person in the district to all of the other people, usually by attempting to approximate a circular shape. One potential solution is using computational models to automate the districting process by optimizing objective and open criteria, such as how spatially compact districts are. • Paul Mitchell – Owner, has conducted dozens of Gerrymander Portraitist Gilbert C. Stuart's depiction of an 1812 Massachusetts redistricting scheme favoring the political party of Governor Elbridge Gerry was the inspiration for the term gerrymander. Definition: Gerrymandering. Redistricting Partners is a firm that focuses on redistricting, demographics and voting rights act analysis. 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