The census has been a vital part of the United States government since Washington's presidency. The sixth line of the Constitution introduces the idea of ​​counting population to better create a fair representative government: "The actual census shall be taken within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and during each term thereafter . ten years, in the manner that they will determine by law. Since then, the census has been used not only to choose the number of state representatives, but also to redistrict and determine county boundaries. Redistricting is a necessary process for our government to function smoothly and ensure fairness among states and different populations. Redistricting should therefore be a nonpartisan affair and should be conducted by a third party whose sole interest is to create fair districts. The power of redistricting resides in the hands of the state legislature, which is then approved by the governor. If one party holds power, it is very easy for that party to redistribute the state in such a way that that party can win votes and, therefore, future elections. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"? Get the original essay As the population of the United States grew, some people determined that it was in the best interests of the parties to what is now called Gerrymandering, the redistribution of a state in a partisan manner so that one party can have control of it. Although the name Gerrymandering may seem random, it is named after Elbridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts in 1812. In 1812, Elbridge Gerry controlled the redistricting of Massachusetts. Gerry redistributed the counties surrounding Boston in such a way that he created a bizarre shape of South Essex, which allowed Democratic-Republican candidates to hold power over the Federalists. Some Federalist writers were quick to label his new creation a monster, with some even calling what appeared to be a salamander. Quickly to their pens, these Federalists considered the new creature a Gerrymander, a portmanteau of the governor's last name and the word salamander. Although Gerrymandering appears to be simply a partisan way to win votes, many officials have also used it to win social votes. and racial power. It is human nature to group together with those who are like us and, aside from socio-economic pressure, ethnicities and races tend to live together. This made it very easy for some individuals to disadvantage minorities. But in the Voting Rights Act of 1960, it became law that lawmakers could not use the power of redistricting to suppress black voters. An example of this was Shaw v. Reno in 1993, when a North Carolina legislator grouped all cities into a single district, thereby lumping all minority and urban voters into a single district and minimizing their votes. This is a difficult question when asking a political scientist, because it is important to redistrict in such a way that minorities are represented by those with similar experiences to theirs, while ensuring that districts do not remove them. This is why in redistricting we cannot create square counties or states. By creating arbitrary lines, minority voices are silenced, which would result in a tyranny of the majority. A key example of this is given below. While the neighborhood appears to be Gerrymandered, which generally has poorconnotation, green represents two Latino communities and the space between them is a heavily African American community. If it were possible to redistrict a country so that every county and district were perfect squares, without social or political resistance, I think it would have been done by now. However, people do not live in huts and communities in this country are populated by a diverse group of people and geographic areas. Before it is possible to determine what is wrong with our current system and propose new ways to redistrict our country, we must first understand how legislatures currently divide communities. As I said before, it is illegal to Gerrymander to remove racial groups. However, it is not illegal for Gerrymander to suppress voters of opposing parties. To advantage their own party, legislatures crack or regroup. By breaking down, we are flaunting the minority group so that it has no representatives. By banding together, legislatures place all political minorities in a compact constituency and in return give them as few representatives as possible. A key example of packing was Michigan's Gerrymandering in 2010. Even though the vote percentage of Democrats and Republicans was roughly the same over the four-year period, due to redistricting, Democrats were condensed into districts, giving Republicans power in elections. To create a fair system, there must be representatives who equally represent each individual in their state. For example, if a state has a population that is 40% blue and 60% red, the representatives should be 40% blue and 60% red. To create an even fairer system, we must also include racial, cultural and economic representatives. In examining problems related to the republic, many mathematicians have turned to geometry and graph theory to determine appropriate ways to mathematically repair the system. Although a large number of solutions are presented, the one that has the merit of proving that there is a better mathematical method is the graph partitioning method. To understand how to partition graphically, we need to understand the different vocabularies and variables. While for graph partitioning we will use vertices, these vertices, v, will represent census block groups. Census block groups allow the government to divide the country into smaller groups. These census block groups are small communities and the districts are made up of block groups, which are themselves made up of census block groups. To understand how to create equally weighted groups, we need to combine the census block groups and link them into G-charts. Each vertex will be assigned a specific rank or weight determined by the number of people living in the area. We will connect these vertices together by edges. (Doyle, 42) Census block groups constitute the smallest political grouping in a region and, therefore, census block groups generally form a single party. This is why for each vertex we can designate either blue or red, representing either the Democrat or the Republican. In order to explain how to carry out this process, I will look at a small area. Having accomplished this, we will be able to show it, through computer programs, on a national scale. Given an area drawn in Figure 4, due to the population distribution, the government has estimated that it is made up of 7 census blocks. We are entrusted with the task oftransform this map into 2 districts. The block shown is split 50% Democrats and 50% Republicans, which means we then have to divide the census blocks into the same percentage to have a fair split. 'To make it simpler, this graph has already been enlarged. Originally, each individual would be represented by a vertex, which would then be transformed into this weighted graph. Although, in the actual maps, there are a decent number of people living in each census block, for our explanation we will assign each census block a weight from 1 to 7, with each census block having the weight of its number. This map can then be transformed into a chart. Since in our original graph there is only one edge between each different cell block and we ignore the weight of the original graph, so the weight of each edge is 1. To get the smallest number of edge cuts, we need to find the maximum match. (Soberon) In our chart above, we can find matches with 1 & 2, 3 & 4, and 5 & 6, leaving 7, our highest weighted vertex, out of the match. By completing this, we can then make minimal Democratic and Republican groupings. By adding up the weights of the new peaks, we can then look for better ways to divide this section into Republican and Democratic districts. If we designate 1 & 2 and 5 & 6 as a Republican district, and 3 & 4 and 7 as a Democratic district, like 1 + 2 + 5 + 6 = 3 + 4 + 7, then we can create two split districts. Then we can rough out the chart and return to our original chart, now with red and blue census block groups. The red lines are edges that connect like colored vertices. However, when creating two districts, there is no way to connect them to create a contiguous district. To make sure they are continuous, we can do something called local refinement. To perform local refinement, we need to calculate the edge cut size, which is “the sum of edge weights in an edge cut”. To keep the ratio, we must also keep the weight of the districts. We can do this by replacing 3 and 4 with 1 and 6. Now while red has 4 census block groups and blue has three, they have the same weight and so it is a fair system. Although this method may seem to work perfectly in theory, in reality it has many flaws. At the beginning of this article, I outlined the delicate balance between racial representation and racial oppression when it comes to redistricting. While there are ways to create weights for block groups, it is not foolproof and many minorities, especially in certain pockets of the Midwest, will be distributed among majority-white communities. There are ideal ways to solve Gerrymandering problems without resorting to computer algorithms. Graphical partitioning methods simply show how, by breaking down counties into sections, we can create fair political lines. If one wanted to change the percentage of colors or divide the weights to represent race or economic stature rather than party and density, one could do so. However, it would be very difficult, even with computers, to create a system with weighted cities that encompass all the criteria we need to create a fair system. Keep in mind: This is just a sample.Get a custom paper from our expert writers now.Get a custom essayAlthough graph partitioning method is a mathematical approach,. 1993.