Apportionment and Gerrymandering (A Math/CS Club Talk)

Math/CS Club Talk on Apportionment and Gerrymandering given by Dr. Joe Malkevitch

Join us for a math talk on apportionment and gerrymandering. (Don't know what that is? Keep reading.)

The talk will be given by Dr. Joe Malkevitch of the Department of Math and Computer Science

About the talk:

The US Constitution requires a census every 10 years and an act of Congress empowers the Secretary of Commerce to use the Huntington-Hill Method (Method of Equal Proportions) to decide the number of seats each of the 50 states should get in the 435 seat House of Representatives. A recent decision of the Supreme Court seems to allow (encourage?) state legislatures to practice partisan gerrymandering—the practice of drawing congressional district lines for partisan advantage. This presentation will explore the fairness argument behind the current apportionment method as well as explore mathematical ways to determine if gerrymandering has been practiced.

Math/CS Club talks take place every Tuesday at 12pm in room 2C07.