via Politics | Mother Jones by Dave Gilson on 9/21/10
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The art of drawing congressional districts to benefit one party or another goes back to the earliest days of the republic. Detailed census and election data have made it even easier to construct electorates with an all-but-guaranteed political leaning. You can usually spot a gerrymandered district by its wacky boundaries. Or you can use this formula (PDF), developed by John Mackenzie, a professor of resource economics and geographic information systems at the University of Delaware:
G = gP/A
G: gerrymandering score
g: the district's boundary length, minus natural boundaries (like coastlines and rivers)
P: the district's total perimeter
A: the district's area
G: gerrymandering score
g: the district's boundary length, minus natural boundaries (like coastlines and rivers)
P: the district's total perimeter
A: the district's area
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