Gerrymandering and a cure for it – the shortest splitline
algorithm (executive summary)
Gerrymandering in 2006 USA is enormous and pervasive.
It appears to be more severe than in any other major democracy.
Gerrymandering can lead to near-permanent 1-party domination and essentially
eliminate voter choice.
A simple cure is to draw all districts with the
shortest splitline algorithm
involving approximately-bisecting
a state's population with the shortest eligible splitting line, and then continuing
recursively on the resulting hemi-states.
This way all districts have simple shapes, are completely unbiased, are easily
independently checked, it costs virtually nothing to draw them,
and you don't have to trust anybody.
Pictures for all 50 states based on US Census data.
Experimental fact:
"Independent" and "bi-partisan"
district-drawing commissions often do not work to stop gerrymandering.
North Carolina 2006 – official districting versus
Shortest Splitline Algorithm:
