OPINION:
In 1964, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart described his threshold test for “obscenity” thusly: “I know it when I see it.” That phrase has seemed to describe gerrymandering.
However, we now have ways of objectively measuring compactness of an area — the antithesis of gerrymandering, which uses extreme “un-compactness” to draw district boundaries in a way to gain political advantage.
The Polsby-Popper test is a simple algorithm used to numerically rate the “compactness” of an area relative to the length of its circumference or outer boundary. It rates a circle at 1.0, a square at 0.78 and a 1-by-2 rectangle at 0.70 — the latter of which would seem to most people to be near the outer limit of “fairness.” So every current political district in each state could retroactively and objectively be rated for “fairness,” though one would be hard-pressed to find such numbers posted anywhere. Just imagine how voters might react if such numbers were made available to them.
Although the federal government cannot tell states how to draw their legislative districts, they have every right to issue guidelines on how state apportionments for U.S. office are implemented. An anti-gerrymandering bill might say:
• Each U.S. district shall contain, within 1%, the same number of constituents.
• States with uncompact external boundary protrusions (panhandles, peninsulas) and/or uncompact inner boundaries (mountain ranges, navigable rivers) shall draw those “peripheral” U.S. districts before drawing remaining “main body” districts in a compact manner.
• All U.S. “main body” districts shall be drawn with a Polsby-Popper rating not less than X (perhaps 0.60, thus allowing each such district to be drawn using existing but less-efficient county boundaries).
• Each multidistricted state shall make its total redrawn U.S. district compactness ratings freely available and subject to the federal government for final approval.
Redrawing U.S. congressional districts as described would restore a degree of trust in our elections, but even without a bill to address gerrymandering, simply measuring and posting current Polsby-Popper ratings for all 435 congressional districts would go a long way toward eventually making gerrymandering unacceptable.
DAVID SWINK
Vienna, Virginia
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