CS Table 11/7/17: Computer-Aided Gerrymandering

This CS table discussion will cover computer-aided gerrymandering: the ways that legislative district boundaries are drawn to favor specific parties or interests, and how computers have changed this process in recent years. The reading and listening below should give you some useful background information on what gerrymandering is, where it came from, and recent developments in the process.

• This short podcast (21 minutes) gives some useful background information and introduces the Gill v. Whitford case heard by the US Supreme Court this fall.
  • Rameswaram, Sean, narrator. "Who’s Gerry and Why Is He So Bad at Drawing Maps?” Radiolab Presents: More Perfect, season 2, episode 4, WNYC Studios, 2017.
• The following articles look at how computers can be used to place boundaries between legislative districts, both in support of gerrymandering as a potential tool to draw fair legislative districts.
  • Ellenberg, Jordan. “How Computer Turned Gerrymandering Into a Science”, The New York Times: Gray Matter, 6 Oct 2017.
  • Oberhaus, Daniel. “Algorithms Supercharged Gerrymandering. We Should Use Them to Fix it”, Vice: Motherboard, 3 Oct 2017.

Computer science table (CS Table) is a weekly meeting of Grinnell College community members (students, faculty, staff, etc.) interested in discussing topics related to computing and computer science. CS Table meets Tuesdays from 12:00–1:00pm in JRC 224A (inside the Marketplace). Contact the CS faculty for the weekly reading. Students on meal plans, faculty, and staff are expected to cover the cost of their meals. Visitors to the College and students not on meal plans can charge their meals to the department (sign in at the JRC front desk).