美国数学建模竞赛特等奖论文——2007 A O Applying Voronoi Diagrams to the Redistricting Problem【数学建模】.pdfVIP

Applying Voronoi Diagrams to the Redistricting Problem May 10, 2007 Abstract Gerrymandering is an issue plaguing legislative redistricting resulting from inade- quate regulation. Here, we present a novel approach to the redistricting problem, an approach that uses a state’s population distribution to draw the legislative bound- aries. Our method utilizes Voronoiand population-weighted Voronoiesquediagrams, and was chosen for the simplicity of the generated partition: Voronoi regions are con- tiguous, compact, and simple to generate. We found regions drawn with Voronoiesque diagrams attained small population variance and relative geometric simplicity. As a concrete example, we applied our methods to partition New York state. Since New York must be divided into 29 legislative districts, each receives roughly 3.44 % of the population. Our Voronoiesque diagram method generated 29 regions with an average population of (3.34 ± 0.74)%. We discuss several refinements that could be made to the methods presented which may result in smaller population variation between re- gions while maintaining the simplicity of the regions and objectivity of the method. Finally, we provide a short statement that could be issued to the voters of New York state to explain our method and justify its fairness to them. 1 Team 1034 Page 2 of 21 Contents 1 Introduction 4 1.1 Current Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2 Developing Our Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .