Math Vs. Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is the attempt to gain an unfair political advantage by manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts. It is a significant threat to our democratic system and has proven to be a difficult issue for our legislatures and courts. The release of the 2020 Census results triggered the once-per-decade process of redrawing boundaries of election districts. This highly-charged political process profoundly affects elections for the following decade and invariably brings accusations of gerrymandering where a party gains a disproportionate political advantage by manipulating district boundaries. But how can gerrymandering be measured and quantified? In the last 10 years, mathematicians have persuasively argued in court, popular media, and academic journals that the best way to quantify gerrymandering in a districting plan is to do a statistical comparison against a large ensemble of alternative districting plans. However, generating such an ensemble is a difficult task.