Multi-balanced redistricting

Daryl DeFord (), Elliot Kimsey and Ryan Zerr
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Daryl DeFord: Washington State University
Elliot Kimsey: Washington State University, Program in Data Analytics
Ryan Zerr: University of North Dakota

Journal of Computational Social Science, 2023, vol. 6, issue 2, No 18, 923-941

Abstract: Abstract The one person–one vote principle for political redistricting requires balancing populations across districts. We address the matter of simultaneously balancing a second attribute across districts, proving that this is always possible to within reasonable tolerances. Feasibility is demonstrated by formulating the problem as a constrained partitioning problem on graphs. The resulting computational results demonstrate the practicality of obtaining dual-balanced districts whose balance for both attributes is well within reasonable deviations from the ideal values. Applications include attempts to avoid differential population growth leading to malapportionment between decennial census counts or simultaneously balancing total and voting-age populations.

Keywords: Political redistricting; Malapportionment; Pancake theorem; Stochastic optimization; Planar partitions; Graph partitions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s42001-023-00217-8

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