Moon Duchin in her very informative article “Geometry v. Gerrymandering” in the November issue of Scientific American, talks about how mathematicians are developing forensics to identify political maps that disenfranchise voters. This is a must-read for the Utah Independent Commission on Redistricting.

It is assumed by a lot of people, including the experts, that if you have concise regular boundaries for political districts, you eliminate gerrymandering. This is far from the case. There are so many ways to district a state that evaluation has become a massive data challenge for even the fastest computers, according to the article. Courts across the country are struggling to come up with a practical standard for identifying these so-called gerrymanders.

Thankfully, in recent years mathematicians have stepped up to develop statistical methods that courts can use to spot manipulative districting. They are also available as expert witnesses to the court in these cases.

Duchin, an associate professor of mathematics and senior fellow at Tufts University, has, with peers, founded a working group call the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group to study the applications of geometry and computing to redistricting in the U.S. This group, in addition to being engaged in research, outreach, training and consulting, conducts workshops around the country.

The people of Utah have rightfully put in place the mechanism for proper districting by passing Proposition 4. It is now up to the commission and the Legislature to follow through and honestly and diligently fulfill the mandate of the people. Hopefully MCMC can be utilized along with other expert means for that to come to fruition.