After a closer read of Fedor's research, what it reveals is that methods that look purely at geography and population density aren't sufficient, because of urba

After a closer read of Fedor's research, what it reveals is that methods that look purely at geography and population density aren't sufficient, because of urban / rural clustering patterns. Gerrymandering relies on a guideline to conserve resources in game theory: win by a little and lose by a lot. That is, pick the districts you lose and pack opponents into those districts. Edge out competition in others. If you incorporated exit polling data and revised your constraints to draw districts to create as many tossup districts as possible based on recent elections, then you should find a district map that is the most weakly gerrymandered. It will still have some aesthetically unappealing shapes, some salamander districts. But while the shape of districts can illustrate gerrymandering, I don't think it's the real concern. Fedor judged systems on how likely it was for the representation to match the statewide split in the voters. If that's the real standard of fairness, the easiest solution would probably just be proportional representation. Thanks for flagging the article, interesting stuff.