new york needing redraw union carolina legislative districts court dictate lawgiver last year hire state lottery machine select new mapping ruled previous represent unfair ascribable part testimony mathematicians computer scientist showed project drawn weaken country democratic fix issue lottery machine loaded maps hold equitable drawn estimator program written jowei chen university michigan professor political science spine day something would take weeks pen paper chen told george paget thomson reuters foundation laptop draw one map minute techniques chen researchers coming spotlight ahead election officials using nose count data redraw lines thousands legislative fare every years reflect changing demographics reported census also done every years consequential political playing field whole next decade said sam wang prof neuroscience princeton university founder princeton university gerrymander project group studying election mapping perfect experts lookout gerrymandering technique used manipulate district lines way advantage disadvantage particular unfair map might split black voters several districts dilute voting power spread republican river voters across district make easier democrats win gerrymandering illegal always easy prove detect years hard say map blend in army for the liberation of rwanda said michael 51 lawyer works issue brennan center new york civil rights dozens court cases across commonwealth researchers like chen presented manifest help challenge districts drawn census cases forced advances supercomputers algorithms advanced mathematics made possible study detect push back precisely maps designed skew elections perfect storm said wang see increases partisanship political polarization leads gerrymandering time big advances computing detecting studying bug term gerrymandering emerge century attempt massachusetts gov elbridge gerry manipulate put forward maps benefit incumbent bug democracy order wang legislatures power draw lines create arrangement run opening floodgates ego dealing development shape up mapping software preceding decade made even easier incumbents draw maps might subtly skew favor said gregory herschlag mathematician duke university northerly tufts university boston princeton university created dedicated programs study gerrymandering train researchers testify court sandra covington group black north carolinas residents locked legal battle nerveracking show province legislative map unfairly concentrated black voters districts diluting forebode upon herschlag used computer draw thou possible maps compare results existing map technique anticipate ensemble method outlier analyze whether black voters clustered way looked atypical compared thousands possible map variations discover something amiss racial makeup highly atypical plan drawn neutrally without regards race herschlag case made way us supreme court legislature forced redraw number district far techniques mostly habituate court show maps drawn unfairly benefit particular political party racial real test come nov election lawmakers could draw in emerging suite technical tools devise fairer maps twofold gerrymandering wang particularly aspirant number res publica put independent commissions draw new territorial dominion use newest tam cho senior inquiry scientist national center supercomputing applications said new techniques panacea community still must decide fair function expect corresponding measure fairness cho said computer going answer