Determine the role district shape plays in whether or not those voters turn out on election day. I propose an initial test of the relationship between district shape and voter participation using two measures describing district shape. A district's perimeter is used to determine the area of circle with the same circumference, and a ratio is created to describe how far removed the area of the district is from th e area of the circle. Perfectly compact districts would score a 1 on this measure, as distr icts become less compact they score less than one, but always more than zero. The second measure identifies the extent to which districts jut out into each others' geographic space.
Spatial incursion is measured at the state-level.
The distance between all of each state's districts are averaged to produce an overall incursion score. I use data from the 1994 National Election Study, appended with individually keyed contextual variables describing the shape of each respondent's district. Compactness will be positively related to the decision to vote. In other words, compact districts low the costs of participation , thus increasing the likelihood of voter turnout. In contrast, districts that are not compact increase the costs of participation, thus decreasing the likelihood of voter turnout.