Science and Culture: Math Tools Send Legislators Back to the Drawing Board. Ornes, S. 115(26):6515–6517.
Science and Culture: Math Tools Send Legislators Back to the Drawing Board [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
[UPDATE] On June 18, 2018, after this article went to press, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on two high-profile cases related to partisan gerrymandering. In effect, the rulings sidestepped the issue of when partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional. Both cases – one concerning voting districts in Wisconsin, the other in Maryland – were sent back to lower courts. On June 25, the SCOTUS ruled on two other cases – in Texas and North Carolina – that will mostly let stand the use of purportedly gerrymandered maps. [Abstract] On January 9, 2018, a trio of federal judges made history when they ruled that the boundaries of North Carolina's congressional voting districts gave an unfair advantage to Republican candidates. It was the first case in the nation in which a federal court had declared congressional maps unconstitutional because of intentional bias in favor of one party. The case was all the more remarkable because the court decision relied in part on mathematical tools that can probe the practice of gerrymandering – the drawing of voting districts to give an intentional advantage to one party.
@article{ornesScienceCultureMath2018,
  title = {Science and {{Culture}}: Math Tools Send Legislators Back to the Drawing Board},
  author = {Ornes, Stephen},
  date = {2018-06},
  journaltitle = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences},
  volume = {115},
  pages = {6515--6517},
  issn = {1091-6490},
  doi = {10.1073/pnas.1807901115},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807901115},
  abstract = {[UPDATE] On June 18, 2018, after this article went to press, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on two high-profile cases related to partisan gerrymandering. In effect, the rulings sidestepped the issue of when partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional. Both cases -- one concerning voting districts in Wisconsin, the other in Maryland -- were sent back to lower courts. On June 25, the SCOTUS ruled on two other cases -- in Texas and North Carolina -- that will mostly let stand the use of purportedly gerrymandered maps.

[Abstract] On January 9, 2018, a trio of federal judges made history when they ruled that the boundaries of North Carolina's congressional voting districts gave an unfair advantage to Republican candidates. It was the first case in the nation in which a federal court had declared congressional maps unconstitutional because of intentional bias in favor of one party. The case was all the more remarkable because the court decision relied in part on mathematical tools that can probe the practice of gerrymandering -- the drawing of voting districts to give an intentional advantage to one party.},
  keywords = {*imported-from-citeulike-INRMM,~INRMM-MiD:c-14608074,~to-add-doi-URL,antipattern,cherry-picking,crisp-vs-fuzzy,democracy,gerrymandering,indicator-driven-bias,science-ethics,science-policy-interface,science-society-interface,spatial-pattern,technology-mediated-communication,trade-offs},
  number = {26}
}

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