Ulric B. and Evelyn L. Bray Social Sciences Seminar

Abstract: We study strategic drawing of electoral maps by political parties, known as gerrymandering. We develop a theoretical framework whose main novelty is that citizens have two dimensions of heterogeneity: partisanship and the probability of turning out. In this framework, parties adopt different gerrymandering strategies depending on the relative turnout rates of their supporters and opponents. This framework allows us to derive a number of empirical implications about the link between partisan support, turnout rates, and electoral maps.