[EL] Efficiency gap and safe states.

[Edelman, Paul]

I am a little surprised by this assertion with regard to the efficiency gap:

Third, the efficiency gap can be (sensibly) calculated in a wide range of electoral environments. Safe states pose no problem for the metric; it's just as meaningful in, say, Massachusetts as in Michigan.

  In the attached graphic I show a state that has a ¼ of its population red and concentrated in the center (think Utah.)  If one is to cut this state into 4 districts, the efficiency gap strongly prefers giving all four districts to blue over giving one district to red.   I thought I understood the  promoters of the efficiency gap to say that this example is highly unrealistic and so not a concern. But if "safe states pose no problem" then maybe it is something to be worried about.

PHE


Paul H. Edelman
Professor of Mathematics and Law
Vanderbilt University
paul.edelman at vanderbilt.edu
615-322-0990

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