NPR and Scotusblog Recap Oral Arguments in Racial Gerrymandering Case

NPR and Scotusblog Recap Oral Arguments in Racial Gerrymandering Case

Wash. DC - NPR's Nina Totenberg recaps Supreme Court oral arguments in , Bethune-Hill v. Virginia State Board of Elections and McCrory v. Harris;  the racial gerrymandering claims arising from the Virginia state legislative and the North Carolina congressional map, which were heard on Monday.  Click below for audio. Read Scotusblog's analysis here.    
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Duke University Team Dabbles with Its Own Algorithm for Measuring Partisan Gerrymandering

Duke University Team Dabbles with Its Own Algorithm for Measuring Partisan Gerrymandering

North Carolina - It isn't Efficiency Gap Analysis, but a team of mathematicians at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy have applied its own model (Markov Chain Monte Carlo method) to measuring the extent of partisan gerrymanders.  The algorithm produces maps with districts that have proven to be comparably more competitive than the actual districts established by states.  This does not appear to be anything new however, since computer modeled redistricting has been around for quite sometime.  The groups methodology explanation does not indicate how its model is superior to other algorithms. Read the article in GovTech.com. The group…
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NPR Talks with Law Profs About Racial Gerrymandering in the Supreme Court

NPR Talks with Law Profs About Racial Gerrymandering in the Supreme Court

Wash. DC - NPR's Nina Totenberg discusses the North Carolina racial gerrymandering claim to be heard today before the U.S. Supreme Court.  Totenberg chats with Stanford law professor Nathaniel Persily and Richard Hasen of University of California Irvine about the two congressional districts in dispute and how the court has dealt with similar claims in the past. Click below.      
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U.S. Census Bureau Extends Comment on Residence Rules

U.S. Census Bureau Extends Comment on Residence Rules

Washington DC - The Census Bureau is extending the comment period on the Proposed 2020 Census Residence Criteria and Residence Situations, which was published in the Federal Register on June 30, 2016. The comment period for the proposed criteria, which would have ended on August 1, 2016, is now extended until September 1, 2016. The full text of the Bureau's message is below.   The U.S. Census Bureau is committed to counting every person in the 2020 Census once, only once, and in the right place. The fundamental reason that the decennial census is conducted is to fulfill the Constitutional requirement (Article I,…
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