Delimitation, or redistricting, can be accomplished using manual techniques such as colour markers, road maps, and calculators, or by using sophisticated computers and geographic information systems (GIS) software. The technology employed may change how the redistricting process is conducted, but it does not change the task of the redistricters in drawing district boundaries. Computers and computer software can, however, add a great deal of speed, accuracy and efficiency to the redistricting process.
Computers can reduce the time it takes to draw a redistricting plan, provide accurate statistical reports to help evaluate a redistricting plan, and produce detailed colour maps of the new boundaries. With computers, report and map production can be as simple as issuing a single computer command. This increase in speed, efficiency, and accuracy has changed the redistricting process to the extent that it allows line drawers to consider a wider range of district plan options. It also permits interested parties, both inside and outside of the process, to evaluate the redistricting plans more easily and more thoroughly.
Computers and computer software can be very expensive, however, and it may not be worth the investment. This is particularly true in countries with small populations and/or few districts to draw. Computer-assisted redistricting also may not be worth the investment in countries where maps have not and cannot be digitised.
In most situations, inexpensive personal computers and simple computer programs, or even adding machines or hand-held calculators, can be used with paper maps to assign geographic units to districts and to keep track of demographic and political data for the new districts. Until very recently, this was the method employed by all line drawers and is still the method used by the vast majority of redistricters outside of Europe, North America and Australia.
