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| Language for Drawing Fair Compact Districts |
Objective method to create compact, easy-to-administer legislative districts by Kathy Dopp
Accept proposed district maps from the all registered political parties. The district map shall be chosen that:
(i) has equal population districts to within 0.5%; and
(ii) utilizes natural and geographic boundaries and barriers in the creation of district boundaries; and
(iii) utilizes existing government boundaries (in particular election administration boundaries such as county boundaries) in the creation of district boundaries; and
(iv) minimizes the sum of the ratio of the perimeter to the area of all the districts (produces compact districts); and
(v) minimizes the ratio of the number of uniquely administered districts to the number of election jurisdictions (to reduce election administration complexity.)
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This language for drawing districts avoids the need for subjective judgments or competing claims and creates districts that serve the voters and are easy to serve and administer.
Let each political party draw up district maps and the "winning" map would be the one that:
1. has a minimum sum of perimeters to areas of districts, and
2. has the minimum ratio of the number of uniquely administered districts to the number of election jurisdictions (for administrative simplicity.
(these two conditions can be equally weighted), and that meets the other three conditions.
Acknowledgment: The language in (ii) and (iii) is borrowed from Roz McGee, a Utah House member who made a different redistricting proposal in the 2007 Utah legislative session.
Note: To directly compare the geographic compactness of two districts, rather than two redistricting plans, use the ratio of the perimeter to the square root of the area. This measure is independent of the size of the district, so that the compactness of different size districts can be compared directly.
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Another similar proposal is posted online here:
http://bolson.org/dist/USIRA.html
and
http://bolson.org/dist/
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A discussion of other proposals for improving redistricting is posted online here:
http://allaboutvoting.com/2007/12/01/the-rose-report-on-algorithmic-redistricting/
http://allaboutvoting.com/category/algorithmic_redistricting/
Other redistricing concerns
Fixing prison-based gerrymandering after the 2010 Census
A 50 state guide
Created on 04/21/2007 03:39 PM by admin
Updated on 08/04/2010 05:29 PM by admin
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