>If we had to redistrict a rectangular state, such as Wyoming, it seems to me >that might be a reasonable possible solution. However, I am concerned about >irregular states, such as, say, Wisconsin, which includes a lot of squiggly >border lines and even some islands. I don't even know if this is a >mathematically solvable problem. What do you think?
>Steve Barney It is not mathematically solvable and it arguably doesn't need to be. There are optimization heuristics that will find reasonably "good" results in a reasonable amount of time. Furthermore, since re-districting occurs (or should occur) only once every ten years, there can be a public contest open to universities, business, individuals, etc. that gives a reward to whoever obtains the smallest sum (ties could be broken by giving the award to the contestant who first submitted the smallest sum). ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
