What are we doing about gerrymandering?

[LAS14]

I heard/read something a while ago about some group of mathematicians, perhaps in Cambridge, holding a conference on how to define/prevent gerrymandering.

I heard that Obama wanted to focus on this.

Is anything happening that ordinary folks can support?

tia
las

[customerserviceguy]

1. Voting in the 2020 elections

for Democratic candidates at the state level is the only way to deal with this. Nothing that the ordinary citizen can do until after the next Census.

[Jim__]

2. Math experts join brainpower to help address gerrymandering

I think this is the math conference you were referring to - from phys.org:

[center][/center]
In this Monday, Aug. 7, 2017 photo, mathematics professor Moon Duchin speaks to attendees during a conference at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. Lawsuits challenging voting districts have risen since a 2013 Supreme Court case made it easier to draw new districts. Duchin realized her geometry research could be used to fight gerrymandering by figuring out if new voting districts pass legal muster. She's now started a summer program to teach mathematicians how to testify in court to help illuminate the complicated topic. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

________________________________________________________________________________________

Some of the brightest minds in math arrived at Tufts University last week to tackle an issue lawyers and political scientists have been struggling with for decades.

They came from colleges across the country for a weeklong conference on gerrymandering, the practice of crafting voting districts in a way that favors voters from a certain political party or demographic. It's a topic of growing interest among many math and data experts who say their scholarly fields can provide new tools to help courts identify voting maps that are drawn unfairly.

Among those working to bridge the classroom and the courtroom is Moon Duchin, a math professor at Tufts who orchestrated the gathering at her Boston-area campus. The workshop was the first in a series being organized at campuses nationwide to unite academics and to harness cutting-edge mathematics to address gerrymandering.

more …

[LAS14]

4. Thanks. I'm posting one of the links I found drilling down...

... in your story. It has some ordinary person info in it. But it looks like I'll have to wait to find some action coattails to latch on to.

https://phys.org/news/2015-08-math-congressional-districting-problem.html#nRlv

[asiliveandbreathe]

3. As someone here stated - Dem voters need to get up of their arse and vote -

AFA AZ is concerned...then Gov Brewer tried to stop our Independent committee - voted into the AZ constitution this Ind. committee Prop 106 2000 - Brewer fired the chairwoman in 2011 - in an attempt to over rule the Ind. redistricting....but she lost...and sued....

The Arizona Legislature was so confident that it would prevail in the U.S. Supreme Court that it even hired a firm to redraw the congressional district maps without waiting for the Court to make its decision.

On June 29, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the legislature's argument in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. The Court held the term "legislature" in the Elections Clause could be read broadly to mean "the power that makes laws," not just the two representative houses. Because Arizona Constitution granted voters exactly "the power that makes laws," the voters were not prohibited from adopting laws governing redistricting.

The court's decision left intact the independent redistricting commission's full authority, and implicitly upheld similar commissions in other states, notably the California Citizens Redistricting Commission -

This is what I know of AZ....

[chowder66]

5. Here is a site that gives some information about what's happening

http://www.endgerrymandering.com

There are resources/links to other sites there as well.

[LAS14]

6. Thanks!!!! nt