Sam Wang wrote this article in the Princeton Election Consortium.
Thanksgiving brings the Nation a win for fair representation, in the form of a way to deal with partisan Gerrymandering.
A Three-Judge Court ruled that the Wisconsin State Legislative map is a Partisan Gerrymander: a map drawn to favor one Major Political Party over the other (decision: Whitford Op. and Order, Dkt. 166, Nov. 21, 2016).
The court applied a mathematical standard created by Nicholas Stephanopoulos and Eric McGhee, the “efficiency Gap.” The case is now headed for consideration by the Supreme Court.
If this standard, or another that addresses the same need, is adopted widely, it would resolve a major gap in Election Law.
This is an important case: In this year’s House Elections, Democrats would have had to win the popular vote by at least 9 percentage points to take control. That is the largest partisan asymmetry on record. It would be reduced considerably if Districting were done according to principles that treated both Parties equally.
The standard used in the Wisconsin case:
It revolves around the key principle that partisan Gerrymandering must consider the Statewide map as a whole. This is likely to be the basis for any successful Standard.
In particular, here is the basic concept of the Efficiency Gap: Look at the Statewide pattern of results. When one Party gets just enough votes to win its races by tiny margins, it has used its votes efficiently. If a party’s wins are large, then votes have been wasted. If the two Major Parties differ in their total number of wasted votes, that is an efficiency gap.
CLICK HERE to read the article and view the graphs.
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