[EL] Simulated Districting Plans and Majority-Minority Districts

[Kogan, Vladimir]

Many thanks to Richard Pildes for bring attention to the amicus brief by political geographers. I have a question I'm hoping someone might be able to answer:

I'm a big fan of Jowei Chen and Jonathan Rodden's work (and indeed assign their "unintentional gerrymander" piece), but it seems like the automated districting approach (and the other two alternatives described in the brief) produce plans that satisfy only contiguity, compactness, and equal population requirements, but do not speak to the Voting Rights Act issues. Drawing a majority-black district can also result in inefficient "packing" of Democrats, and can potentially explain why a given set of maps is outside of the range produced by simulations. Is there any automated districting algorithm out there that specifically incorporates VRA/majority-minority districts?

Thanks!

Vlad Kogan

[The Ohio State University]
Vladimir Kogan, Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
2004 Derby Hall | 154 N. Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210-1373
510/415-4074 Mobile
614/292-9498 Office
614/292-1146
http://u.osu.edu/kogan.18/
kogan.18 at osu.edu<mailto:kogan.18 at osu.edu>

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