Redistricting consultants offer a wide range of services to countries contemplating or undertaking the process of drawing district boundaries. They can serve in a broad range of capacities, from providing limited advice on a particular facet of redistricting to managing the entire redistricting process.
Some redistricting consultants may be of particular use in computer-assisted redistricting. They can provide custom software, for example, or advise on the selection of software. They can assist with the acquisition of hardware and in installing redistricting computer systems. And they can provide training in system operations.
Some of the more general services a redistricting consultant may provide include:
- help in designing a formal redistricting process, including suggesting electoral law relating to the delimitation process;
- help in the construction of a redistricting database;
- strategic advice on creating districts;
- help in evaluating a redistricting plan;
- litigation support in a court challenge to a redistricting plan.
Depending on what a consultant is being asked to do, the consultant should be conversant with comparative methods of redistricting and the laws that govern redistricting, including defining and measuring redistricting criteria, and with administering and managing the redistricting process. If the consultant is being asked to help with the line drawing process itself, the consultant should have experience with:
- the use of maps and population data;
- the construction of databases (including the merging of political and census data, if applicable);
- the creation of districts;
- the evaluation of redistricting plans.
If a number of broad tasks are required, a consulting firm or a group of consultants may be of greater service than an individual consultant.
Redistricting consultants are often trained as geographers or political scientists. Whatever their training, they should be knowledgeable about the election process and electoral law, geography, political methodology and statistics as well as the redistricting process in particular. Computer-assisted redistricting may require consultants with computer-programming and other technical skills.
The costs of hiring a consultant are as wide ranging as the services offered by consultants. Using a consultant in an advisory capacity is clearly much less expensive than bringing in a consultant to oversee or actually create a database or draw districts.
