DISTRICTS BY RULE

It is the view of the Unit, and of some thousands of web sites, that the gerrymander (1) has polymorferated, is proliferating and ought to be obliterated.

No system of election is, or can be, perfect. But to fix boundaries between electoral constituencies to ensure that the party in power and/or the representatives in office will not be voted out is to attack the very purpose and function of elections. Whilst gerrymandering was fairly ineffective it could be regarded as an amusing curiosity. Now that computers have made such attempted election rigging much more capable of fulfilling its corrupt intentions, the gerrymander has turned into a malignant tumor in the body politic of more than one nation.

The Unit proposes that computers should enable a cure for the ill. Election districts shall be drawn automatically by the following procedure:

1. Select a basic indivisible unit, e.g. the smallest Census division.

2. A computer shall assemble the indivisible units into the number of electoral districts (sometimes constituencies, ridings or what you will) required, following three rules set well in advance:
   1. The expected numbers qualified to vote shall not vary by more than x(usually 5 or 10, but more with large indivisible units)% between the districts, and

   2. Minimising the sum of the total lengths of the boundaries of districts.

   3. Where there are two or more solutions whose sum of total lengths (2) is close to one another (e.g. within 1%), the configuration with the lowest variance between districts in expected numbers qualified shall be selected.

This procedure will tend to produce equal, compact districts. Occasional results will be “odd”, but much less so than gerrymandering. It will be quick, facilitating up-to-date districts. Its results are likely to be neither better nor worse than the labours of a truly impartial commission (3). It appears eminently suitable for putting to referendum though one or other form of citizens’ initiative.

Many politicians in power will hate being deprived of power to gerrymander. But an automatic system can be expected to be politicians’ second preference. The system will tend to produce little boundary change away from its initial selection unless there has been net movement of population. Also, it will be easier than waiting on the unpredictable decisions of a commission.

Should you wish to comment, an email to solon@use-solon.org may draw a response.

(1)       The gerrymander, a species created in Massachusetts in 1812 as an accident of early electogeographic engineering.

(2)       The precise length of the boundaries of some indivisible units will be debateable.

(3)       The example of the United Kingdom, which has such a Commission whose work is accepted as impartial but has resulted in a bias in favour of one party, puts that either in doubt or in perspective.