1. UNBIASED AUTOMATED REDISTRICTER UBARD
Taking the bias out of district lines
Blue Group
Feasibility Presentation
CS 410 Spring 2017
March 15, 2017

2. TEAM BLUE DOMAIN EXPERT:
Jack Doherty
Chris Hartman
Adam Hill
John Rattz
Kenneth Sutton
Jacob Villafane
DOMAIN EXPERT:
Dr. Richard Murray, professor of political science, University of Houston
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March 15, 2017

3. TEAM MANAGEMENT Roles Project Manager: Adam Hill
Webmaster: Chris Hartman
Web Version Supervisor: Kenneth Sutton
Database Manager: Jacob Villafane
Data Manager: John Rattz
Algorithm Expert: Adam Hill
UI Manager: Jacob Villafane
Tester: Jack Doherty
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March 15, 2017

4. DISTRICT LINES
The redrawing of districts is subject to bias and impacts all government and public services affected by district boundaries. 
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March 15, 2017

5. MANIFESTATIONS OF THE PROBLEM
School districts and population
Racial and economic segregation of students
Government services such as
Postal service
Sanitation
Unfair election results via gerrymandering
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March 15, 2017

6. IMPACTS OF BIASED DISTRICTS
Gerrymandering is the process of drawing political district lines to favor a party or its members in an election.
Partisan gerrymandering creates many districts for the party in power and few for the opposition – resulting in an unbalanced voter base per district drawn.
Historical neighborhoods, minority voters, and socioeconomic factors may be misrepresented.
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March 15, 2017

7. PENNSYLVANIA DISTRICT MAP, 2012
Source: Vox, “Gerrymandering, explained”
House Republicans won 49% of the popular vote in 2012 but won 72% of the state’s seats
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March 15, 2017

8. NORTH CAROLINA’S DISTRICT MAP, 2012-2014
Source: Daily Kos, “No, Maryland is not the most gerrymandered state. There is more to gerrymandering than ugly shapes”
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March 15, 2017

9. NORTH CAROLINA’S DISTRICT MAP, 2012-2014
Source: Daily Kos, “No, Maryland is not the most gerrymandered state. There is more to gerrymandering than ugly shapes”
NC started with 7-6 Democrat majority before redistricting
After 2012, 9-4 Republican majority
GOP lawmakers tried to pack in black voters into 1st and 12th districts, struck down as illegal racial gerrymandering
Population columns show how minority voters are grouped together in a few districts to reduce their overall influence by skewing the margins of victory to favor Republicans.
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March 15, 2017

10. 2012 NC VOTE RESULTS Source: Vox, “Gerrymandering, explained”
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March 15, 2017

11. WASHINGTON STATE’S BIPARTISAN REDISTRICTING
Uses a bipartisan redistricting commission
Often devolves into a gerrymander aimed at protecting incumbents from both parties
Uncompetitive races
Incumbent protection redistricting helped GOP because they made gains in elections
Source: Daily Kos, “Here's what Washington state might have looked like in 2016 without congressional gerrymandering”
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March 15, 2017

12. VIRGINIA
GOP redrew district lines to secure them 8-3 advantage in
Map struck down for unconstitutional racial gerrymandering
Black voters packed into 3rd, made surrounding more likely to vote Republican
Requested an extension in 2015, denied by judiciary
Led to current map
Source: Daily Kos, “Here's what Virginia might have looked like in 2016 without congressional gerrymandering”
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March 15, 2017

13. VIRGINIA CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS, 2016
District
Winner
Party
Margin of Victory 1
Robert J. Wittman *
Republican
25.1% 2
Scott Taylor
23.4% 3
Robert Scott *
Democrat
33.8% 4
Donald McEachin
14.6% 5
Tom Garrett
16.6% 6
Robert Goodlatte *
33.4% 7
Dave Brat *
15.8% 8
Donald Beyer *
41.2% 9
Morgan Griffith *
40.3% 10
Barbara Comstock *
5.8% 11
Gerry Connolly *
Unopposed
* Incumbent
Source: Washington Post, “Who’s winning Virginia: Live election results”
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March 15, 2017

14. VIRGINIA CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS, 2016
Source: Virginia Department of Elections, “2016 November General Official Results”
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March 15, 2017

15. THE SOLUTION: UBARD Districts must fairly represent all voters equally
Districts in which a minority group constitutes the majority of voters are exceptions.
However, the 14th Amendment requires that states do not discriminate on the basis of race.
The solution should incorporate compactness and contiguity constraints.
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March 15, 2017

16. CURRENT VIRGINIA PROCESS
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17. PROPOSED VIRGINIA PROCESS
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18. COMPETITORS
Brian Olson: program that draws districts to be “optimally compact” based on 2010 census
Center for Range Voting: uses shortest splitline algorithm
BDistricting
Center for Range Voting
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March 15, 2017

19. COMPETITION MATRIX
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March 15, 2017

20. THE CUSTOMER Voters Non-partisan/non-profit groups Political activists
The press
Academia
State legislators
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21. MARKETABILITY
Depending on the solution in place, costs for some states will vary
The costs to replace their current system could be significantly lower, which will more than likely sway the states opinion on the solution
The states that do benefit from UBARD will see an increase in their budget and fair districting
Possibly little cost for teaching the tool
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March 15, 2017

22. ADVANTAGES OF UBARD Unbiased districts based on available data
Can be extended to
School districts
Governmental services such as postal and sanitation
Emergency services
Public awareness of the problem
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March 15, 2017

23. MAJOR FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS
Databases
US Census Data
Previous District Maps
State and City Boundaries
Previous Election Results
Cache
Frequently Used Data
Historical Sites
Archived District Map Solutions
UBARD
District Compactness
Population Equality
Legal Requirements
Algorithms
Ranked Priorities
District Maps
Electoral Districts
Internet
Local UI
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March 15, 2017

24. COSTS Hardware Software Maintenance Minimal
No real time applications, time to run the algorithm is not paramount
Any relatively new personal computer would suffice
Software
Also minimal
Census data freely available
Maintenance
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March 15, 2017

25. LIMITATIONS AND PROBLEMS
Won’t redistrict, just make suggestions
Algorithm limited in scope and scale
Supervising body could have a political agenda, modify code to produce biased districts
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March 15, 2017

26. CONCLUSION Redrawing of districts is subject to bias
Impacts all government and public services affected by district boundaries
Results in unbalanced distribution of public resources
Unbiased redistricting can be achieved by a software solution
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March 15, 2017

27. REFERENCES
Article V, Virginia Constitution. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2017, from
Baas, K. (n.d.). Auto-Redistrict. Retrieved March 24, 2017, from
Gerrymandering and a cure - shortest splitline algorithm. (n.d.). Retrieved March 02, 2017, from
Impartial Automatic Redistricting. (n.d.). Retrieved March 02, 2017, from
Redistricting in Virginia. (n.d.). Retrieved from
Splitline districtings of all 50 states DC PR. (n.d.). Retrieved March 02, 2017, from
2016 November General Official Results. (2017, January 6). Retrieved from Virginia Department of Elections:
Prokop, A. (2015, May 15). Gerrymandering, explained. Retrieved February 9, 2017, from
Who’s winning Virginia: Live election results. (2016, November 8). Retrieved from Washington Post:
Wolf, S. (2016, December 27). Here's what Virginia might have looked like in 2016 without congressional gerrymandering. Retrieved from Daily Kos: have-looked-like-in-2016-without-congressional-gerrymandering
Wolf, S. (2016, December 30). Here's what Washington state might have looked like in 2016 without congressional gerrymandering. Retrieved from Daily Kos: Washington-state-might-have-looked-like-in-2016-without-congressional-gerrymandering
Wolf, S. (2016, June 1). No, Maryland is not the most gerrymandered state. There is more to gerrymandering than ugly shapes. Retrieved from Daily Kos: gerrymandered-state-There-is-more-to-gerrymandering-than-ugly-shapes
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March 15, 2017