Mathematical Analysis of Redistricting in Utah

We discuss difficulties of evaluating partisan gerrymandering in the congressional districts Utah and failure many common metrics Utah. explain why Republican vote share least-Republican district (LRVS) is a good indicator advantage or disadvantage each party has districts. Although LRVS only makes sense settings with at most one competitive district, that setting it directly captures extent to which given redistricting plan gives Democratic parties. use evaluate measures context Utah’s 2011 do this by generating large ensembles alternative plans using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. also implications new metric our results on question whether was gerrymandered.