A Partisan Solution to Partisan Gerrymandering: The Define-Combine Procedure

• In Event: Gerrymandering and Redistricting

Abstract

Redistricting reformers have proposed many solutions to the problem of partisan gerrymandering, including non-partisan commissions, bipartisan commissions with members from each party, or court- or special-master-drawn plans. All of these solutions require either bipartisan consensus or the agreement of both parties on the legitimacy of a neutral third party to resolve disputes. In this paper we propose a new method for drawing districting maps, the Define-Combine procedure, that substantially reduces partisan gerrymandering without requiring a neutral third party or bipartisan agreement. First, one party defines a map of 2N contiguous districts. Then the second party combines pairs of contiguous districts to create the final map. We use simulations and map drawing algorithms to show that this procedure reduces partisan bias and produces maps with similar results to those drawn by independent commissions without requiring cooperation or non-partisan actors.

Authors

• Maxwell B. Palmer, Boston University

• Benjamin Schneer, Harvard University

• Kevin DeLuca, Harvard Kennedy School