Discuss with maps!: County map requests for 2008 election results

[jimrtex]

ftp://ftpgis1.tlc.state.tx.us/

Under the /gis directory prec.zip has the shapefiles.

Is is feasible to do extracts of (counties) from a large file like that?  I think Texas has about 8000 precincts.

prec_dist.xls has the mapping of precincts to counties, and various districts congressional and legislative districts).

Under the /elections file there are results from elections up through the 2008 primaries, but nothing yet for the general.

This data may match up with vtd.zip shapefiles.  The Leg. Council I think is interested in a continuous set of boundaries, so adjust election results to old boundaries.  There may be census demographic data for the vtd shapefiles.

The counties will of course use the current precincts.  When I was doing stuff on the 2006 gubernatorial election, I ended up using data from the counties and the prec shapefiles, rather than the election results from the Leg. Council  and the vtd shapefiles.  This might be because I started with the county election results for Harris County, and would find strange results every so often where precincts had been renumbered.  Harris County has NO system to the numbering of precincts.  They were originally numbered sequentially.  But whenever a precinct was split, the new precinct would be given a number on the end of the list.  And then when precincts were merged numbers would get dropped, and then re-used.  Harris County went from around 650 precincts to over 1300 because of the evil Democratic gerrymanders of the 1990s.  It is back down to around 850.

You can get precinct data on most of the large county web sites, but it probably will require some massaging.

[jimrtex]

You can't can get precinct data on most of the large county web sites, but it probably will require some massaging.

Bexar County: http://www.bexar.org/ISDMS/EL/PE/G/November%204%202008%20-%20Joint%20General%20and%20Special%20%20Election%20Totals.htm
Collin County: http://www.co.collin.tx.us/elections/election_results/2008/110408/110408CPP.pdf
Dallas County: http://www.dalcoelections.org/archivedresults/nov42008/PCT_BY_PCT_Results.zip
Denton County: http://elections.dentoncounty.com/20081104/Results/Total/precinct.pdf
El Paso County: http://www.co.el-paso.tx.us/elections/current/pct_by_pct.pdf
Harris County: http://www.harrisvotes.com/HISTORY/110408/Canvass/canvass.pdf
Tarrant County: http://tcweb.tarrantcounty.com/evote/lib/evote/2008/11042008/results/web_pct_contest_02.pdf
Travis County: http://www.co.travis.tx.us/county_clerk/election/20081104/files/pct1.pdf

I misspelled "can"

[jimrtex]

Is that southwestern Lubbock County precinct Slaton?    How weird.

The Alaska maps are killing my browser.   A 25 megapixel image doesn't work very well when the browser is reducing it to 1% of that.  Not to mention the 24 bit color.

If you want leave a link to the giant maps.

[jimrtex]

Is that southwestern Lubbock County precinct Slaton?    How weird.

I assume you mean southeastern.

Slaton is split between the two precincts.

36 to the west is 67% A, 29% H, 3% B
38 to the east is 36% A, 52% H, 11% B

Slaton, TX was a one time RR town, and it is possible that the black population is a residual from that time (porters, etc.).  The 1990s evil Democrat gerrymander split the town of 6,000 people on the same boundary as the current precinct line, on its way to include an area of Democrat voters in Lubbock.  The CD line had the same little notch to the west going through Slaton, so that was likely an area of "Democrat" voters.

The Census Bureau site has VTD shapefile boundaries from the 2000 census (not all states defined these) - look under Maps.  Also VTD demographic data is availabe in American Factfinder under the PL-94-171 data.  There doesn't seem to be a way to do thematic maps for that data though.  Some of the VTD boundaries may have changed since 2000, but may not have.  Changes in election precincts requires pre-clearance under the VRA.  Not changing the boundaries doesn't require pre-clearance, and is thus easier.

[jimrtex]

Lubbock County, TX

On the Lubbock County data did you combine all the subsegments of the election precincts?  Lubbock County used countywide polling places where a voter could vote at any polling place in the county.  The correct ballot for a voter's election precinct would then be generated.  The county also conducted a couple of school district special elections with the general election.  Since school district boundaries don't always coincide with election precinct boundaries, it was necessary to have ballots specific to areas of an election precinct that were within or outside the school districts.  Lubbock County tabulated these areas separately.

[jimrtex]

Also, I'm guessing the Republican areas of Hidalgo County are the white enclaves? Although Hidalgo is 88% Hispanic, not sure how there could be any non-Hispanic majority precincts outside of the extremely rural ones, especially so scattered. Explanation?

More likely higher income that is coincident with a larger share of Anglos.