<P> To help ensure neutrality, members of a redistricting agency may be appointed from relatively apolitical sources such as retired judges or longstanding members of the civil service, possibly with requirements for adequate representation among competing political parties . Additionally, members of the board can be denied access to information that might aid in gerrymandering, such as the demographic makeup or voting patterns of the population . </P> <P> As a further constraint, consensus requirements can be imposed to ensure that the resulting district map reflects a wider perception of fairness, such as a requirement for a supermajority approval of the commission for any district proposal . Consensus requirements, however, can lead to deadlock, such as occurred in Missouri following the 2000 census . There, the equally numbered partisan appointees were unable to reach consensus in a reasonable time, and consequently the courts had to determine district lines . </P> <P> In the U.S. state of Iowa, the nonpartisan Legislative Services Bureau (LSB, akin to the U.S. Congressional Research Service) determines boundaries of electoral districts . Aside from satisfying federally mandated contiguity and population equality criteria, the LSB mandates unity of counties and cities . Consideration of political factors such as location of incumbents, previous boundary locations, and political party proportions is specifically forbidden . Since Iowa's counties are chiefly regularly shaped polygons, the LSB process has led to districts that follow county lines . </P> <P> In 2005, the U.S. state of Ohio had a ballot measure to create an independent commission whose first priority was competitive districts, a sort of "reverse gerrymander". A complex mathematical formula was to be used to determine the competitiveness of a district . The measure failed voter approval chiefly due to voter concerns that communities of interest would be broken up . </P>

How is the act of census taking and gerrymandering possibly related