A partisan districting protocol with provably nonpartisan outcomes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a districting protocol that ensures nonpartisan outcomes through a turn-based process, with provable guarantees on fairness and control over district composition.

Contribution

It presents a novel, provably fair districting protocol that balances partisan influence and guarantees equitable district representation.

Findings

Protocol guarantees balanced district majorities.

It limits partisan packing of voters.

The method ensures predictable and fair districting outcomes.

Abstract

We design and analyze a protocol for dividing a state into districts, where parties take turns proposing a division, and freezing a district from the other party's proposed division. We show that our protocol has predictable and provable guarantees for both the number of districts in which each party has a majority of supporters, and the extent to which either party has the power to pack a specific population into a single district.