2 research outputs found
The study of a new gerrymandering methodology
This paper is to obtain a simple dividing-diagram of the congressional
districts, where the only limit is that each district should contain the same
population if possibly. In order to solve this problem, we introduce three
different standards of the "simple" shape. The first standard is that the final
shape of the congressional districts should be of a simplest figure and we
apply a modified "shortest split line algorithm" where the factor of the same
population is considered only. The second standard is that the gerrymandering
should ensure the integrity of the current administrative area as the
convenience for management. Thus we combine the factor of the administrative
area with the first standard, and generate an improved model resulting in the
new diagram in which the perimeters of the districts are along the boundaries
of some current counties. Moreover, the gerrymandering should consider the
geographic features.The third standard is introduced to describe this
situation. Finally, it can be proved that the difference between the supporting
ratio of a certain party in each district and the average supporting ratio of
that particular party in the whole state obeys the Chi-square distribution
approximately. Consequently, we can obtain an archetypal formula to check
whether the gerrymandering we propose is fair.Comment: 23 pages,15 figures, 2007 American mathematical modeling contest
"Meritorious Winner
The study of a new gerrymandering methodology ∗
This paper is to obtain a simple dividing-diagram of the congressional districts, where the only limit is that each district should contain the same population if possibly. In order to solve this problem, we introduce three different standards of the ”simple ” shape. The first standard is that the final shape of the congressional districts should be of a simplest figure and we apply a modified ”shortest split line algorithm ” where the factor of the same population is considered only. The second standard is that the gerrymandering should ensure the integrity of the current administrative area as the convenience for management. Thus we combine the factor of the administrative area with the first standard, and generate an improved model resulting in the new diagram in which the perimeters of the districts are along the boundaries of some current counties. Moreover, the gerrymandering should consider the geographic features.The third standard is introduced to describe this situation. Finally, it can be proved that the difference between the supportin