Tag Archives: algorithms

Mathematicians are deploying algorithms to stop gerrymandering

For decades, one of those users was Thomas Hofeller, “the Michelangelo of the modern gerrymander,” long the Republican National Committee’s official redistricting director, who died in 2018. Gerrymandering schemes include “cracking” and “packing”—scattering votes for one party across districts, thus diluting their power, and stuffing like-minded voters into a single district, wasting the power they […]

What is an “algorithm”? It depends whom you ask

Similarly, New York City is considering Int 1894, a law that would introduce mandatory audits of “automated employment decision tools,” defined as “any system whose function is governed by statistical theory, or systems whose parameters are defined by such systems.” Notably, both bills mandate audits but provide only high-level guidelines on what an audit is. […]