Data Analytics for Redistricting and Voting Rights

Undergraduate

This seminar is focused on the use of data analytics to help resolve legal disputes in redistricting and related voting rights and election law litigation. Students use real-world voter files, granular election data, and modern statistical methods to analyze the partisan and/or racial biases of legislative (re)districting maps, as well as the impact of election regulations on voter turnout and partisan outcomes. Students write an “expert report” on a legislative districting scheme for a state of their choice, using the concepts and techniques learned in class. Students must have completed a class that teaches regression techniques (Ex. PLSC 347, PLSC 438, PLSC 452, the YData courses, etc.). Students should also have experience coding (R, Stata, or an equivalent data-analysis-friendly programming language, e.g. Python). PLSC 218 is suggested, or another class related to constitutional law and/or election laws and regulations. SO W 9:25am-11:20am