Biased Election Maps: Fighting Gerrymandering in 2020
Channel: Chi Hack Night
Date: 2017-08-17

Every ten years, everyone in the US is counted by the Census, and our congressional districts get redrawn. In 2020 it will be different: manipulating the district maps, known as gerrymandering, is now done with algorithms and “big data” collected on every voter. A recent study by The University of Chicago Law Review concluded that “the severity of today’s gerrymandering is … unprecedented in modern times.”

Web developer, mapmaker, and former Code for America fellow Nick Doiron returns to Chi Hack Night from Gerrymandering Summer School by the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group (yes, this is a real thing), to share how mappers and technologists can help measure and challenge unfair election maps.

This talk covers:

- what gerrymandering is, and how it works today
- why we probably can’t draw districts with one, unbiased algorithm
- open source maps and metrics that Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group is developing