Formal Redistricting Criteria and Fairness to Underrepresented Racial Minorities

• In Event: Protecting Voting Rights in Redistricting and at the Ballot Box: Past and Future

Abstract

An important question as we enter the next round of redistricting is how law and practice will serve under-represented racial minorities. This paper investigates the modern relevance of race-based redistricting doctrines with the help of automated redistricting algorithm. While commentators, scholars, and courts express skepticism about the necessity of Section 2’s protections against minority vote dilution and faith that good-government redistricting principles will adequately protect minority voting strength, this paper empirically evaluates when and where Section 2’s protections might be necessary.

Authors

• Bruce E. Cain, Stanford University

• Wendy K. Tam Cho, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Emily Zhang, Stanford University

• Iris Hui, Stanford University