Electoral Boundaries: Lessons for California from Mexico's Redistricting Experience

Almost two hundred years after the term gerrymandering was first used in Massachusetts, redistricting remains a complex and politicized process that affects the way the legislative branches are conformed and the quality of political representation around the world. In this paper, we describe the redistricting process in California and ask how it would work if it were to be implemented by an independent agent (instead of the local legislature or a bipartisan commission). Using a simulated annealing redistricting algorithm we create a hypothetical scenario that reduces significantly partisan bias in the state. Developed by the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute in 2005, this optimization model allowed us to recreate California's 53 Congressional districts and to analyze their racial and electoral composition. We found systematic evidence that the majority party in local legislature ends up with electoral benefits every time districts are drawn.