Instead of having legislators or a commission redraw lines could we take the “human” element completely out of the process and just have it drawn by a computer? Well Brian Olson has created a program to do that here. He has a simulation of what each states districts might look like. California is posted below:
It is an interesting experiment, yet basically impossible to enact. There are requirements to meet in the Voting Rights Act that are not accounted for. Geographic areas such as mountains or lakes are not included (what if a district is bisected by a large mountain range with a small portion living on the other side of the mountain, they would be split from the rest of the district.) City and County borders are also not included. A valiant attempt, but still a lot of holes. If you think you could do a better job, the code for the program is included on the website. Good Luck!
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