A Cut-And-Choose Mechanism to Prevent Gerrymandering
Computer Science and Game Theory
2019-01-07 v3
Abstract
This paper presents a novel mechanism to endogenously determine the fair division of a state into electoral districts in a two-party setting. No geometric constraints are imposed on voter distributions or district shapes; instead, it is assumed that any partition of the population into districts of equal population is feasible. One party divides the map, then the other party chooses a minimum threshold level of support needed to win a district. Districts in which neither party meets this threshold are awarded randomly. Despite the inherent asymmetry, the equilibria of this mechanism always yield fair outcomes, up to integer rounding.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1802.08351,
title = {A Cut-And-Choose Mechanism to Prevent Gerrymandering},
author = {Jamie Tucker-Foltz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.08351},
year = {2019}
}