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3:1 Nesting Rules in Redistricting

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  • Christopher Donnay

Abstract

In legislative redistricting, most states draw their House and Senate maps separately. Ohio and Wisconsin require that their Senate districts be made with a 3:1 nesting rule, that is, out of triplets of adjacent House districts. We study the impact of this requirement on redistricting, specifically on the number of seats won by a particular political party. We compare two ensembles generated using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods; one which uses the ReCom chain to generate Senate maps without a nesting requirement, and the other which uses a chain that generates Senate maps with a 3:1 nesting requirement. We find that requiring a 3:1 nesting rule has minimal impact on the distribution of seats won. Moreover, we probe how 3:1 nesting can mitigate partisan gerrymandering, and find that nesting reduces the ability of a party to bias the Senate map.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Donnay, 2025. "3:1 Nesting Rules in Redistricting," Statistics and Public Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 2581309-258, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:usppxx:v:12:y:2025:i:1:p:2581309
    DOI: 10.1080/2330443X.2025.2581309
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