Open Data, Transparency and Redistricting in Mexico Alejandro Trelles, Micah Altman, Eric Magar and Michael P. McDonald* Abstract: The many complaints and protests by citizens generated by the deterioration of the political elite in recent decades are clear evidence, among other things, of the urgent need to strengthen the connections between citizens and their representatives. To this end, the delimitation of the electoral boundaries —also known as redistricting— is key to improve political representation. Given the many technicalities involved in this processes —geographic, statistical, digital, among the most obvious— it is easy to succumb to the temptation of relegating it to specialists and lose sight of its importance for democracy. From our perspective, the use of new technologies, as well as the generation and use of open data, offer an opportunity to strengthen political representation. In this article we discuss Mexico’s redistricting experience, the challenges in terms of transparency, and *Alejandro Trelles is a doctoral candidate in Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh, 4600 Wesley W. Posvar Hall, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260. Tel: +1(412) 979 07 15. E-mail:
[email protected]. Micah Altman is director of research in the program on Information Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), E25-131, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139. Tel: +1(585) 466 42 24. E-mail:
[email protected]. Eric Magar is a full-time professor of Political Science at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), Río Hondo 1, Progreso Tiza- pán, México, D.F., 01000. Tel: +52(55) 56 28 40 79. E-mail:
[email protected].