A Talk by Beth Malmskog of Colorado College
Gerrymandering is the process of manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts for political gain. This is considered by many to be deeply unfair, but it has been common practice in states across the country for more than 200 years. Gerrymandering has become even more of an issue in recent years with the rise of powerful technologies and focused strategies. The constitution mandates that all states must draw new maps in 2021, and people across the country are looking for ways to ensure that the new maps are fair. Math is an essential tool in this fight. This talk will introduce a mathematical perspective on gerrymandering and describe the work I am doing in Colorado with my collaborator Jeanne Clelland and a large group of students. We apply exciting new ideas from mathematics and tools created by the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group and the Voting Rights Data Institute to generate hundreds of thousands of random possible districting plans for Colorado. These let us paint a picture of how likely different outcomes are for Colorado elections with these unbiased maps. Our data and analysis provide a rich new perspective on Colorado’s political geography, and allow us to begin a conversation about how mathematics is essential to the 2021 redistricting in Colorado and the rest of the country.