[new paper] A widespread belief about county splits in political districting plans is wrong, with Maral Shahmizad and Soraya Ezazipour https://austinlbuchanan.github.io/files/A_widespread_belief_about_minimum_county_splits_is_wrong.pdf
Just how widespread is this belief? Well… it made it all the way to Supreme Court oral arguments in Allen v. Milligan #SCOTUS
Six is not actually minimum. In order to satisfy two basic criteria (1-person deviation and contiguity), four splits would suffice. To also get two majority-Black districts and comparable compactness, five splits would suffice.
@AustinLBuchanan it sounds to me like this is focusing purely on mathematical theory while the arguments excerpted in the paper may be referring to much more than the math theory, balancing other factors including restrictions earlier in the legal process.
For example, in saying that six in the minimum you have to have, Lacour was also referring to different plans before them, hinting that he really meant regardless of the theory, that's what they had on the table to work with.
@volkris if you read his questions from cross examination, you’ll see he’s just talking about the math. We give excerpts from this Q&A in the paper