A Harvard University project named The Algorithm-Assisted Redistricting Methodology (ALARM) Project has software that can randomly draw thousands of district maps within a state to ascertain the effects of gerrymandering on election results.

It found that no matter how the US House districts are drawn in Massachusetts, the US House delegation will include zero or one Republican.

However, its analysis of Florida showed that US House district gerrymandering boosted from 16 Republicans (on average) in the 28 member delegation to the actual number of 20 Republicans elected in 2022.

Here is an article on this project, and thanks to electionlawblog.org for tipping us off on this!

On October 13, U.S. District Court Judge Judith Levy refused to stay her own earlier injunction in Libertarian National Committee v Saliba, e.d., 5:23cv-11074. This is the trademark lawsuit involving two factions of the Michigan Libertarian Party. The faction supported by the Libertarian National Committee last month had won an injunction against the other faction.

The judge says the injunction only applies to activities involving the “sale, offering for sale, distribution or advertising of any good or service”, and that both factions are still free to call themselves the Libertarian Party, aside from the quoted activity. The quote is from the federal trademark law, the Lanham Act. Here is the judge’s order.

Amplifying Richard Winger’s post of two days ago, the Prime Minister-elect of New Zealand, Christopher Luxon, wants to form a coalition government with ACT New Zealand, which is a libertarian party. Final vote counts aren’t in yet, but, as of now, the two parties won 61 of 121 seats in the New Zealand parliament.

New Zealand’s adoption of proportional representation has made ACT New Zealand a political power in that nation.

Here is a story on this development.

Here is the Wikipedia article on ACT New Zealand.