Call it MAG: Mutually Assured Gerrymandering. First Texas, under pressure from the White House and Justice Department, began redrawing its district maps in the middle of the decade — although the process is normally undertaken after a new census. Now several blue states have said they may attempt to follow suit, which would mean warping their own districts to further boost the Democrats.
Gerrymandering has long been a problem, but this is a new level of insanity that should spur urgent demands for reform. Addressing the problem requires states or Congress to step up and produce fair maps, judged by objective measures. My research suggests one way to do so, based on how far a map departs from perfect compactness.
Redistricting isn’t my usual beat. I’m an economist who dissects race and inequality to design fixes for stubborn social ills — and a venture capitalist who then backs the market solutions those findings inspire, instead of letting them languish in obscure academic journals or well-meaning nonprofits.
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Roland G. Fryer, Jr., a John A. Paulson Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is Professor of Economics at Harvard University, an entrepreneur, and co-founder of Equal Opportunity Ventures.
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