A rational, fair, and impossible way to draw districts

Harvard economics professor Roland Fryer describes a method of creating legislative districts that is provably and undeniably fair, even as he acknowledges that the nature of American politics would make adopting it nearly impossible:

Back in 2004, soon after earning my Ph.D., I found myself in the Harvard Society of Fellows chatting with a Supreme Court justice. I asked what single problem math or economics could solve for the Court. The answer was instantaneous: Give us an objective yardstick for political maps.

After months huddled around a whiteboard with a sharp graduate student, Richard Holden, fueled by too much bad Harvard Square coffee, we created a measure we call the “Relative Proximity Index.”

Picture every voter as a dot on the state map. First, we pin down the geometric minimum — the most compact way to bundle those dots inside the state’s jagged borders into its exact number of congressional districts, each with equal population, whether that means wrapping around Florida’s panhandle or hugging Georgia’s slanted shoulder. Then we compare the map the legislature actually draws to that floor. The ratio is the Relative Proximity Index. An R.P.I. of 1 means you’ve hit the geometric ideal; an R.P.I. of 3 means voters within a district would live — on average — three times farther apart than necessary.

In my view, the R.P.I. is the most attractive measure of gerrymandering. While it focuses on compactness to the exclusion of other criteria, it is a simple, easy-to-understand approach. It does not require an opaque computer algorithm to draw thousands of maps for comparison, and it does not rely on an assumption that a fair map will produce proportional representation (which may not be true, depending on how the parties’ constituencies are distributed geographically).

This fight hits home for me. I moved to Texas at age 5 and stayed through college. We pride ourselves on straight shooting. But the facts — who lives where — don’t match the tall tales coming out of Austin. One district hugs the Rio Grande for well over 500 miles, from San Antonio’s outskirts almost to El Paso. That’s not state pride; it’s sleight of hand. “Don’t mess with Texas”? Fine. Stop messing with Texas, and with the blue states preparing to respond in kind.

He calls my objection "fatalistic." I'd say "historical," but sure. I would wholeheartedly endorse a fair method of redistricting like this, just as I wholeheartedly endorse non-partisan redistricting commissions and expanding the House of Representatives to about 700 members. (Not to mention DC statehood.)

With one of our parties headed toward fascism and another one getting shut out of power through the kind of political skulduggery we haven't seen since the 1850s, I'm afraid this proposal will have to wait a few years.