Game-Based Redistricting for Small-Population States

Overview

Congressional districts are often perceived as being biased towards specific parties or groups. Recently, due to major court cases the problem of gerrymandering has received much attention from mathematicians and computer scientists. One proposal suggests a game-based districting method where two players alternate creating districts, but it does not work for small-population states. This project proposes and evaluates an alternate game for two-district states like Maine, where two districts are created by players who alternate adding precincts. T o be politically viable, such a game must: • follow simple rules, • create compact and continuous districts, and • Not admit a dominant strategy for either player. The effectiveness of this game is analyzed using simulated state maps and players programmed to follow simple strategies. It is shown that the game creates compact and continuous districts and does not admit a dominant strategy unless one party has a significant electoral advantage in the state.

Competition history

• JSHS 2023 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.