The ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics

We measure the performance, in the task of apportioning the Congress of the United States, of an algorithm combining a heuristic-driven (simulated annealing) search with an exact-computation dynamic programming evaluation of the apportionments visited in the search. We compare this with the actual algorithm currently used in the United States to apportion Congress and with a number of other algorithms that have been proposed. We conclude that on every set of census data in this country's history, our heuristic-driven apportionment provably yields far fairer apportionments than those of any of the other algorithms considered, including the algorithm currently used for Congressional apportionment.

• Keywords: Algorithms, Experimentation, Power Indices, Apportionment Algorithms, Simulated Annealing
• CR Categories: J.4 [Computer Applications]: Social and Behavioral Sciences; K.4 [Computing Milieux]: Computers and Society
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