"Convex" is too simplistic. The maps don't actually break down that way because the census measures population on millions of little "blocks" and you have to build up districts by ammassing those blocks.
It would be fair to try and describe a desireable border or shape in other ways though. I'm pushing for "minimize the average distance of each person to the center of their district." I have a solver and some results here: http://bolson.org/dist/ Brian Olson http://bolson.org/ On Fri, 1 Sep 2006, Steve Barney wrote: > It seems to me that a requirement that districts have to be convex > may make gerrymandering significantly more difficult. Is that a good > idea? I suppose we would have to make allowance for non-convex > natural borders, of course, but perhaps such a rule could be imposed > to the extent it is possible. Is anybody aware of any political > jursidiction that has adopted such a requirement? > > Steve Barney > Oshkosh, WI > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > ---- > election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info > ---- election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
