Electoral redistribution : the case of the preliminary report of the Fisher Commission for British Columbia, Canada
Date
1989
Authors
Crumplin, William Walter
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Abstract
Different sets of electoral district boundaries can be selected to delineate a state, province, or country. Election results would likely differ depending upon which set of constituency boundaries were used. Some sets of ridings may result in one party being favoured at the expense of the other(s), or the electorate of certain regions being allowed relatively more representation in the legislature. Although these consequences can be identified following an election, it would be too late to remedy such representational disparaties. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework that could be employed to either assess the fairness of a particular redistribution before it is implemented, or aid in the process of electoral boundary readjustment.
Many authors have suggested different measures that can be used in determining the degree of fairness in an electoral system. These criteria include equalizing riding populations within a prescribed tolerance range, respecting natural barriers, communities of common interest and transportation and communication routes, and measuring urban and suburban ridings for compactness. In order to evaluate these measures, they are applied to a case study, the Preliminary Report of the Fisher Commission for British Columbia.
The criteria are found to be effective at identifying possible readjustment maladies. They are able to reveal several shortcomings contained in the Preliminary Report. During the evaluation process, it became apparent that the definition of a parameter and the index value denoting compactness for one of the compactness measures are possibly too rigid. They are relaxed and this compactness index was recalculated for each of the affected ridings. As a result, several constituencies are found to be compact. Due to the successful application of this set of criteria to the case study, it is felt that this method is well suited for analyzing a proposed system of electoral districts. Since this method allows for consistency in both measuring and evaluating various electoral district parameters, it is also felt that it could assist any redistribution authority in completing its mandate.