In this case, about 3.7 seconds.<\/p>\n
But, as with all things Louisiana, where politics is waged as 4D chess, checkmate is not that easy, says Greg Rigamer, one of those rare people with the ability to decipher and accommodate both the unswerving validity of mathematical equations and the relentless warrior mentality of politicians, for whom this take-no-prisoners game of redistricting comes down to: \u201cFind me one more vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throw in the bitter divide of race, the bane of the United States for 250 years, and finding a voting solution that satisfies the most Louisiana residents becomes an AI hallucination.<\/p>\n
Louisiana currently has six congressional districts, four of them largely white and Republican, and two that are mostly Black and Democrat. Now, the burning question being debated in the back chambers of the Baton Rouge Capitol and in the Oval Office of the White House is whether that 4-2 tilt in favor of the Republicans will become 5-1 or even 6-0, given President Donald Trump\u2019s desire to extend the Republican runway in Congress.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe easy part is to divide 4 1\/2 million by six,\u201d said Rigamer, a New Orleans political data consultant whose facility with polling and statistical modeling is legendary in and beyond Louisiana. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely simple. But, dealing with decision-makers is almost impossible because they want their mother-in-law, who lives on this street, in their district, but they don\u2019t want the people on the next street over.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s ruling<\/a> April 29 in Louisiana v. Callais that the state\u2019s current congressional map was unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered \u2013 the significant legal sticking point was the creation in 2024 of a second majority-Black district that snaked its way from Shreveport to Baton Rouge \u2013 I wondered if AI was equipped in a \u201cpost-Callais\u201d world to handle this simple task: \u201cCan you develop a new congressional district map for the state of Louisiana using the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the Callais decision as guides?\u201d<\/p>\n Faster than former Gov. Bobby Jindal could zip through prices at an Angus livestock auction, ChatGPT came back with assurances that it would not just \u201cdraw a map of Louisiana the way a politician might sketch lines (uh-oh, that\u2019s a real problem). It would follow a structured, data-driven pipeline with explicit rules and tradeoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n ChatGPT\u2019s non-negotiable \u201ccriteria\u201d would be equal population (\u201cone person, one vote\u201d), compliance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act (where there could be no racial vote dilution) and contiguous districts (\u201cno disconnected pieces\u201d). It would use the most recent census data, parish boundaries, voting-precinct maps and geographic features such as rivers and bayous.<\/p>\n It also claimed it would take into account compactness (\u201cavoid weird, snake-like districts\u201d: Did someone mention Louisiana\u2019s 6th District?), respect community lines, promote fairness and protect minority representation.<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s the catch,\u201d ChatGPT cautioned. \u201cThese goals can conflict (umm, yes). Algorithms must balance tradeoffs (e.g., compactness vs. minority representation).\u201d<\/p>\n ChatGPT advised that an AI system likely would \u201canchor districts around population centers (New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport), ensure at least one or two majority-Black districts to comply with federal law, balance rural vs. urban populations across districts (and) minimize splitting parishes where possible.\u201d<\/p>\n In 3.7 seconds, ChatGPT\u2019s work was done, producing a map that looked, to the unpracticed eye, sleek and coherent. ChatGPT spit out a 5-1 Republican-Democratic map, with the Democratic district centered on New Orleans.<\/p>\n That was the moment Dorothy returned to Kansas.<\/p>\n For his political clients, Rigamer has used a proprietary data-crunching program that essentially can identify what a person on a certain block had for breakfast last Tuesday morning. He also is a pro with the AI tool Gemini and adept with the data-slicing ability of DavesRedistricting.org<\/a>, an open-source program with a state-by-state breakdown of voter information and district maps.<\/p>\n Still, Rigamer said Gemini failed the test for meeting his exacting standards.<\/p>\n \u201cI told Gemini, \u2018I want six congressional districts in Louisiana,\u2019 and it spit out a map pretty quickly, but it was wrong on so many points,\u201d Rigamer said.<\/p>\n Rigamer told Gemini it was \u201challucinating\u201d because some of the districts were not contiguous.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a piece of a district here and a piece of another district here,\u201d Rigamer said. \u201cI think what it was doing was grouping communities of interest, irrespective of geography. It did fix that. Then I told it some of the districts were much smaller than the others. Districts have to be within three-quarters of a percentage point in total population.\u201d<\/p>\n Rigamer and other political experts said dispassionate math is one thing. Human maneuvering is another.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not like medicine, where there\u2019s a million different variables,\u201d Rigamer said. \u201cIt\u2019s just straight numbers. But where it gets difficult is the people who are drawing the map saying, \u2018Well, I\u2019m really popular in this area. This area has got to be in here.\u2019 You get into those kinds of things that are personal judgments. You have all these things that come into play that have nothing to do with math.\u201d<\/p>\n The redrawing of the snake-like 6th District in 2024 was steeped in political intrigue because it turned a Republican-majority district into one that was majority Democratic. It was widely viewed as Gov. Jeff Landry\u2019s payback for Rep. Garret Graves\u2019 endorsing Landry\u2019s 2023 gubernatorial opponent, Stephen Waguespack, and also for Graves\u2019 reluctant support for Steve Scalise for speaker of the U.S. House.<\/p>\n Graves chose not to run in the newly constructed district.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dcer237tfveol.cloudfront.net\/img\/wbrz\/images\/news\/2026-05\/04chatgpt_image2_chatgpts_new_district_map.jpg\")
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