Quiz: Can You Spot a 'Compact' District?

Virginia's new Redistricting Commission will be required to draw legislative boundaries that are "compact." But what exactly does a compact district look like? Try our quiz below to see if your perception matches that of a compactness algorithm.


The quiz above compares current Virginia House of Delegates districts using a formula known as "Know It When You See It." Researchers asked people to rank districts from the most compact to the least compact and then trained a computer to create a formula that mimics how people perceive compactness.

Feb. 24, 2021