  We bound an exponential sum that appears in the study of irregularities of
distribution (the low-frequency Fourier energy of the sum of several Dirac
measures) by geometric quantities: a special case is that for all $\left\{ x_1,
\dots, x_N\right\} \subset \mathbb{T}^2$, $X \geq 1$ and a universal $c>0$ $$
\sum_{i,j=1}^{N}{ \frac{X^2}{1 + X^4 \|x_i -x_j\|^4}} \lesssim \sum_{k \in
\mathbb{Z}^2 \atop \|k\| \leq X}{ \left| \sum_{n=1}^{N}{ e^{2 \pi i
\left\langle k, x_n \right\rangle}}\right|^2} \lesssim \sum_{i,j=1}^{N}{ X^2
e^{-c X^2\|x_i -x_j\|^2}}.$$ Since this exponential sum is intimately tied to
rather subtle distribution properties of the points, we obtain nonlocal
structural statements for near-minimizers of the Riesz-type energy. In the
regime $X \gtrsim N^{1/2}$ both upper and lower bound match for
maximally-separated point sets satisfying $\|x_i -x_j\| \gtrsim N^{-1/2}$.
