Mathematicians are deploying algorithms to stop gerrymandering - MIT Technology Review
( August 12, 2021; MIT Technology Review )
It’s the drawing of these maps, more than anything—more than voter suppression laws, more than voter fraud—that determines how votes translate into who gets elected. “You can take the same set of votes, with different district maps, and get very different outcomes,” says Jonathan Mattingly, a mathematician at Duke University in the purple state of North Carolina. “The question is, if the choice of maps is so important to how we interpret these votes, which map should we choose, and how should we decide if someone has done a good job in choosing that map?”
Over recent months, Mattingly and like-minded mathematicians have been busy in anticipation of a data release expected today, August 12, from the US Census Bureau. Every decade, new census data launches the decennial redistricting cycle—state legislators (or sometimes appointed commissions) draw new maps, moving district lines to account for demographic shifts.
In preparation, mathematicians are sharpening new algorithms—open-source tools, developed over recent years—that detect and counter gerrymandering, the egregious practice giving rise to those bestiaries, whereby politicians rig the maps and skew the results to favor one political party over another.
Read the rest from MIT Technology Review: Mathematicians are deploying algorithms to stop gerrymandering
Related:
- Recombination: A Family of Markov Chains for Redistricting - ( March 31, 2021; HDSR )
- Multi-Scale Merge-Split Markov Chain Monte Carlo for Redistricting - ( August 18, 2020; arXiv )
- The Markov Chain Monte Carlo Revolution - ( University of Chicago Course Readings )
- The Quantifying Gerrymandering group - ( Duke University )
- GerryChain github
- Maptitude Online Redistricting
- July, 2021 Lecture by Duke's Jonathan Mattingly
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Ah!
TIL:
"Gerrymander" is a portmanteau of (Governor Elbridge) Gerry and "salamander"; coined in 1812 because of the salamander-like shape of a district in Massachuetts drawn to Gerry's advantage.
I also learned the word's etymology from this article. Funny that it never occurred to me to wonder where it came from before.
I learned a lot in addition to your article. Went down a very small rabbit hole; it was fascinating though!
Gerrymandering term maybe unfamiliar to some readers here.
This is how gerrymandering works:
Image Source: Reddit
That diagram makes it very easy to understand. Thank you!
Honestly, I did not know what gerrymandering meant initially. I guess I learned a new word today. The fact that theoretical Mathematical principles are being applied to real-life issues to provide solutions is awesome.
Agreed. I learned from @primevaldad's post that this is a 400 year old problem, but it's nice to see a new approach towards solving it. In all those centuries, I think this could be the first time that voters will have concrete information available to know whether our districts are drawn fairly.
Gerrymandering often leads to an unpleasant number of one-sided politicians being elected to office. This has created a district of voters who are socio-economically, ethnically or politically equal, so that members of Congress are safe from potential rivals and, as a result, have little reason to compromise with colleagues on the other side. This tarnishes the basic political image. So mathematicians need to set up stronger algorithms to stop gerrymandering.
A non-partisan electoral commission seems to be working well in Canada (federal level and Quebec, where I'm from). It's not perfect - rural counties weigh more - but government barely has a say.
If not, then go proportional to solve the problem
Interesting. It makes sense because there's a conflict of interest when the partisan lawmakers are the ones drawing up the boundaries.
In the video, he talked about how both parties in Maryland seem to have agreed to settle on a 7:1 split, so the arrangement benefits incumbents from both parties. Clearly a side-effect from that conflict of interest.
Elections are a formal decision-making process through which the people elect a representative for administrative work, but due to gerimandering, the party in power develops a process to amend the congressional district to its advantage. As a result, the people have lost confidence in a neutral election.
I think this system will not be able to stop gerrymandering. There are some another way to stop this what would more effective. Thank you.
You may be right. It seems that right now the focus is mainly just on measuring the amount of gerrymandering and giving people tools to take to court. In the video, I learned that the work by Mattingly and his team was used by the courts when overturning district maps in both North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Mathematices, my favourite subject. I am seeking my honours degree in this subject.
Glad you like the subject. I do too. My bachelor degree is in math, but it gets rusty if you don't use it. ; -) Good luck pursuing your degree. I hope that COVID hasn't disrupted your studies too much.
Math is awesome!
I like Computer science, i admitted in a University in computer science subject.
I'm getting ready to start some sort of computer science / dev community here. I hope you'll follow along, and join when it's ready!
Studying computer science is a great choice. Maybe, in the future, you'll be able to apply the things you are learning to develop tools for the Steem platform.
Mathematics is the key or queen of all science.