Biased Election Maps: Fighting Gerrymandering in 2020
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Transcript of Biased Election Maps: Fighting Gerrymandering in 2020
Biased Election MapsFighting Gerrymandering in 2020
Nick Doiron - 2012 Code for America fellow@mapmeld on Twitter && GitHub -I was at MGGG but don’t speak for them or my employer
About me
2012 - Code for America
2013/14 - Boston GIS, DataMade, Civis
2015 - Myanmar election API & maps
About MGGG
- Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group (MGGG)
- Google this: Tufts gerrymandering
- Videos on YouTube !
Oct 12-15 U.WI-Madison - Register literally today
Pennsylvania | 50.3% R - 48.3% D | 13 - 5
The US doesn’t have proportional reps
But why is the difference SO BIG?
It’s deliberately drawnthat way
By our reps
“Gerrymandering” ??
1812edition
Where do gerrymanders come from?
Do we even need to redistrict?
1942 Colegrove v. Green - Felix Frankfurter
1962 Baker v. Carr - Frankfurter falls1964 Civil Rights Act1965 Voting Rights Act
Don’t need proof ofracist intent, onlyracist outcome
Supreme Court steps up
2010-2012 “RedMap”
2013 - Voting Rights Act weakened
Advances in “big data”and algorithms
2020 might be as big of a shift
Voting Rights Act - what went wrong?
0.1% figure willinevitably come up in 2020 and be made to seem like a valid point
Partisan Gerrymandering
Advances in “big data” on consumers,GIS/maps
make this very predictable
Partisan Gerrymandering
Supreme Court is still cautious
Reviewing this year (!!!)
Justice Kennedy’s 2004 Hackathon Pitch
"Technology is both a threat and a promise…
new technologies may produce new methods of analysis that make more
evident the precise nature of the burdens gerrymanders impose on the
representational rights of voters and parties. That would facilitate court efforts
to identify and remedy the burdens, with judicial intervention limited by the derived
standards.
If suitable standards... did emerge, hindsight would show that the Court
prematurely abandoned the field."
Fight fire with fire, right? Tech can help!
BDistricting.com - Brian Olson
I get what you wanted to do, but NO
Algorithmic redistricting in Mexico
Every district has a story
Illinois 4th District
Every district has a story
NY Times Population Density Map
Every district has a story
Majority-minority districts are the law
- 2 - 3 minority groups living close together
- created by Voting Rights Act
- defended and defined by Supreme Court
(Gingles)
- benefits clear, alternatives unclear
Even city-wide elections can disenfranchise
Racial and Partisan Gerry-mandering are Linked
Maybe we could use geometry
Moon Duchin organized MGGG
There are other diagrams, but this is one that I understood
Maybe we could use ecological inference
Maybe we could use supercomputers
Yan Liu and Wendy Cho compare existing district maps to algorithms with partisan and non-partisan goals
We definitely need informed votersgithub.com/gerrymandr -
Explaining District Genius
“The battle for our tomorrow starts today”
- TSCC
Reminder: register now!
Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group (MGGG)
Math, Educator, and GIS tracks
Oct 12-15 U. WI-MadisonAsk a friend if they need help getting there
Thanks!
Nick Doiron
@mapmeld on Twitter && GitHub
@gerrymandr direct line to MGGG people