> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 18:22:26 -0800 (PST) > Subject: Re: [EM] redistricting > To: "election-methods-electorama.com@electorama.com" > <election-methods-electorama.com@electorama.com> > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed > > On Fri, 7 Jan 2005, Forest Simmons wrote: > > > > Yes, let the candidates (and any others who want to) submit their favorite > > redistricting proposal, and then choose from among them, not by voting, but > > by applying some objective standard of compactness ... minimal total number > > of traffic lanes cut by the boundaries, minimal total boundary length in > > some > > appropriate metric, minimal average distance between members of the same > > district where the distance is some combination of cost, time, and taxicab > > mileage, etc. > > > > > > Forest Brian Olson replies: > > This sounds like one of the parts of a classic set of problems in Computer > Science that are like cryptography in that a solution is hard to find, but > easy to verify.
Actually, it sounds to me like a minimum graph cut problem. There are efficient network flow algorithms for solving these problems. -- Andrew ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info