Taming the Gerrymander—Statistical physics approach to Political Districting Problem

The Political Districting Problem is mapped to a q-state Potts model in which the constraints can be written as interactions between sites or external fields acting on the system. Districting into q voter districts is equivalent to finding the ground state of this q-state Potts model. We illustrate this by districting Taipei city in its 2008 Legislature Election. Statistical properties of the model are also studied.