Why Drawing Fair Districts Is Mathematically Hard

Moon Duchin is a math professor at the University of Chicago whose theoretical work has practical applications for voting and democracy. Why is striving for fair elections so difficult?

• SOURCES:
  • Moon Duchin, professor of mathematics at Cornell University.

• RESOURCES:
  • "Gerrymandering: The Origin Story," by Neely Tucker (Timeless: Stories from the Library of Congress, 2024).
  • "Redistricting for Proportionality," by Gabe Schoenbach and Moon Duchin (The Forum, 2023).
  • "The Atlas Of Redistricting," by Aaron Bycoffe, Ella Koeze, David Wasserman, and Julia Wolfe (FiveThirtyEight, 2018).
  • "In a Comically Drawn Pennsylvania District, the Voters Are Not Amused," by Trip Gabriel (The New York Times, 2018).

• EXTRAS:
  • "State of Texas to begin calling witnesses in federal hearing over Trump-backed congressional map," by Blaise Gainey (KUT News, 2025).
  • "Utah's Redistricting Battle Explained," (PBS Utah, 2025).
  • "Is This the Future of High School?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.