Nonpartisan Political Redistricting by Computer

Abstract

OR volunteers developed a compart ness measure and a “warehouse-location” heuristic to draw nonpartisan, Constitutional political districts. The heuristic maps compact and contiguous districts of equal population. The minimization criterion and compactness measure is population moment of inertia—the summed squared distances from each person to his district's center. The districting method is particularly useful when legislative impasse or indifference forces courts to intervene. Federal Courts have received a computer plan for possible use in Delaware and have asked for computer districts in Connecticut.