The Thicket of Gerrymander

In both the editorial (Oct. 10), “Judicial Jungle,” and William Schneider’s article (Opinion, Oct. 13), “U.S. Supreme Court Enters the Thicket of Gerrymander,” the writers assume that the way to make reapportionment fair is to gerrymander the districts so that every special interest group, whether racial, ethnic, or political, is proportionately represented in the legislature. Both writers despair of ever being able to achieve this fairness. No matter how the lines were drawn, some group, such as farmers or Polish-Americans, would always be claiming discrimination. They conclude that it is better to leave things as they are, with the party in control of the legislature manipulating the voting power of every citizen to maintain themselves in office.

I agree that it is hopeless to try to satisfy every group by adjusting the district boundaries, no matter how carefully we do it or how sophisticated the computer technology we use. However, doing this or leaving things in the present mess are not the only alternatives. Instead of heading further into the thicket, let’s get out! Stop the gerrymandering altogether. We can do it with the same computer that reelected Assembly Speaker Willie Brown’s Democratic colleagues.

Here is how:

1--Store in the computer’s memory the precinct boundary lines and the population of each precinct. (This has already been done in California to help in the gerrymandering.)

2--Set up a hierarchy of instructions for the computer, such as

a. Populations of the districts must be equal to within 5%.

b. District boundaries must follow precinct boundaries, i.e., do not divide precincts.

c. Do not divide a city unless it is too large for one district.

d. Subject to the above conditions, draw the districts in such a way as to minimize the sum of the lengths of the boundaries.

The last point is the key. It guarantees that the districts will be compact, as required by law. (It is the same principle by which a group of soap bubbles minimize their boundaries, thereby producing the most compact volumes possible.) It also makes the solution unique. Anyone with a large computer can arrive at the same solution, so there can be no question of political bias.

District boundaries drawn in this way would be absolutely free of racial, ethnic, economic, or any other kind of bias. Technology has given us an answer to the reapportionment problem that could not have been dreamed of when the Constitution was written.

GEORGE L. CLARK SR.

Manhattan Beach