DRA stuff

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Michigan fair map

1 (blue): R+1
2 (green): EVEN
3 (purple): R+4
4 (red): D+3
5 (gray) D+9
6 (gold): R+8
7 (teal): D+1
8 (slate blue): D+5
9 (pink): D+2
10 (chartreuse): D+9
11 (aquamarine): D+13
12 (cyan): R+4
13 (dark salmon): 46% White, 48.8% Black; D+23
14 (olive): 43.2% White, 45.4% Black; D+24

That's more like it. Would you like it scored with the other MI maps we all posted a few years ago?

Sure.
Funnily enough my FL map also counts as a fair map in the sense it reflects the state's partisan balance (median seat is R+1. 3) and has a good amount of swing districts, though it was drawn as a Democratic gerrymander.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Ohio fair map

1 (blue): D+2
2 (green): R+19
3 (purple): D+12
4 (red): R+16
5 (gold): D+5
6 (teal): R+6
7 (gray): R+5
8 (white): R+16
9 (cyan): EVEN
10 (pink): R+2
11 (black): 50.5% White, 44% Black; D+23
12 (cornflower blue): R+7
13 (dark salmon): D+4
14 (olive): D+4
15 (dark orange): R+9
16 (khaki): D+4
The median seats, the 9th and the 10th, average out to be R+1, right in line with the state.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Michigan fair map

1 (blue): R+1
2 (green): EVEN
3 (purple): R+4
4 (red): D+3
5 (gray) D+9
6 (gold): R+8
7 (teal): D+1
8 (slate blue): D+5
9 (pink): D+2
10 (chartreuse): D+9
11 (aquamarine): D+13
12 (cyan): R+4
13 (dark salmon): 46% White, 48.8% Black; D+23
14 (olive): 43.2% White, 45.4% Black; D+24

That's more like it. Would you like it scored with the other MI maps we all posted a few years ago?

Sure.

In order to score your map, I need to recreate it to measure the chops. The scoring rules treat chops more harshly if they exceed 5% of the population of a CD. Some of your county chops look like they slice through townships and cities (which are equivalent to townships in MI). We also treated maps more harshly if they split multiple townships and cities in a single county.

Do you have the population deviations for each CD? That would tell me if I've recreated it correctly.

I don't, but I could (a) email you the drf files or (b) load them later and tell you the deviations.
Which do you prefer?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Michigan fair map

1 (blue): R+1
2 (green): EVEN
3 (purple): R+4
4 (red): D+3
5 (gray) D+9
6 (gold): R+8
7 (teal): D+1
8 (slate blue): D+5
9 (pink): D+2
10 (chartreuse): D+9
11 (aquamarine): D+13
12 (cyan): R+4
13 (dark salmon): 46% White, 48.8% Black; D+23
14 (olive): 43.2% White, 45.4% Black; D+24

That's more like it. Would you like it scored with the other MI maps we all posted a few years ago?

Sure.

In order to score your map, I need to recreate it to measure the chops. The scoring rules treat chops more harshly if they exceed 5% of the population of a CD. Some of your county chops look like they slice through townships and cities (which are equivalent to townships in MI). We also treated maps more harshly if they split multiple townships and cities in a single county.

Do you have the population deviations for each CD? That would tell me if I've recreated it correctly.

I don't, but I could (a) email you the drf files or (b) load them later and tell you the deviations.
Which do you prefer?

You can load them later. However, I can tell your score will suffer from the large number of township/city chops - particularly in the large counties. Townships and cities are subunits, and once more than 5% of a county is chopped into other CDs then each subunit chop counts against the score, just like a county chop. You may want to make some edits first to fix some of the more obvious subunit chops.

Here's the thread with the other scored MI maps.

Well the reason you might see some townships chopped is because I was looking at DRA's municipal lines tool very closely to avoid municipal splits.
Does one take precedence over the other?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Well the reason you might see some townships chopped is because I was looking at DRA's municipal lines tool very closely to avoid municipal splits.
Does one take precedence over the other?

DRA shows lines for Census places. Those include cities which are equivalent to townships, and villages which are subsidiary to townships. There is a nice map on the thread I linked that show the county subunits for Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

On DRA you can tell what are subunits by the voting district (precinct) number.  In MI the first three digits are the county number. The next four digits are the county subunit, either township or city. The remaining digits identify the voting district in that subunit.

Wait so that is what they truly mean by 'city and town lines'?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Well the reason you might see some townships chopped is because I was looking at DRA's municipal lines tool very closely to avoid municipal splits.
Does one take precedence over the other?

DRA shows lines for Census places. Those include cities which are equivalent to townships, and villages which are subsidiary to townships. There is a nice map on the thread I linked that show the county subunits for Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

On DRA you can tell what are subunits by the voting district (precinct) number.  In MI the first three digits are the county number. The next four digits are the county subunit, either township or city. The remaining digits identify the voting district in that subunit.

Wait so that is what they truly mean by 'city and town lines'?

Yes. In MI some are county subdivisions and others are just Census places that don't count as separate county subdivisions. Each state is different based on their own laws. DRA just loaded the place shapes for all states and didn't distinguish between types of municipalities. Wikipedia is usually accurate about which munis fall into which category. If you use Wikipedia as a reference for MI, it's townships and cities that matter for the chop count.

Any chops you see as being particularly easy to fix?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Michigan (statewide): 56.9 Obama, 41.5 McCain; 47.5 Dem, 52.5 Rep. (Ave: 52.7 Dem)
1 (black): 53.8 Obama, 44.4 McCain; 50 Dem, 50 Rep. (Ave: 52.4)
2 (green): 56.7 Obama, 41.7 McCain; 45.6 Dem, 54.4 Rep. (Ave: 51.6)
3 (purple): 40.6 Obama, 57.7 McCain; 30.1 Dem, 69.9 Rep. (Ave: 36.2)
4 (red): 47.7 Obama, 50.5 McCain; 39.9 Dem, 60.1 Rep. (Ave: 44.2)
5 (gold): 58.5 Obama, 39.7 McCain; 50.1 Dem, 49.9 Rep. (Ave: 54.8 )
6 (teal): 53.7 Obama, 44.7 McCain; 44.6 Dem, 55.4 Rep. (Ave: 49.6)
7 (gray): 60.5 Obama, 37.9 McCain; 50.3 Dem, 49.7 Rep. (Ave: 55.9)
8 (slate blue): 57.6 Obama, 40.7 McCain; 48.4 Dem, 51.6 Rep. (Ave: 53.4)
9 (cyan): 70.2 White, 19.2 Black; 63.5 Obama, 35.2 McCain; 52.4 Dem, 47.6 Rep. (Ave: 58.4)
10 (pink): 55.3 Obama, 42.8 McCain; 48.6 Dem, 51.4 Rep. (Ave: 52.5)
11 (chartreuse): 50.9 White, 42.4 Black; 69.7 Obama, 29.2 McCain; 58.4 Dem, 41.6 Rep. (Ave: 64.4)
12 (cornflower blue): 59.8 Obama, 38.4 McCain; 51.7 Dem, 48.3 Rep. (Ave: 56.2)
13 (white): 43.8 Obama, 54.5 McCain; 34.2 Dem, 65.8 Rep. (Ave: 39.4)
14 (olive): 36.3 White, 52.6 Black; 80 Obama, 19 McCain; 70.5 Dem, 29.5 Rep. (Ave: 75.7)
Note: the (Ave:) is the two-party vote in 2008 averaged with the Dem/Rep numbers in DRA.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

2 (green) is now 57.5 Obama, 40.9 McCain; 45.7 Dem, 54.3 Rep (Ave: 52.1)
1 (black) is now 49.5 Obama, 48.7 McCain; 45 Dem, 55 Rep (Ave: 47.7)
4 (red) is now 53.2 Obama, 45.2 McCain; 45.5 Dem, 54.5 Rep (Ave: 49.8)
3 (purple) is now 39.5 Obama, 58.8 McCain; 30 Dem, 70 Rep (Ave: 35.1)
8 (slate blue) is now 57.4 Obama, 40.9 McCain; 48.2 Dem, 51.2 Rep (Ave: 53.3)

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

NC fair map

1 (gray): 49.9 White, 41.5 Black; 62.3 Obama, 37.1 McCain; 64.6 Dem, 35.4 Rep. (The arm into Durham was done to get it below 50% White)
2 (red): 58.5 White, 31.4 Black; 49.8 Obama, 49.6 McCain; 52.3 Dem, 47.7 Rep. This district was designed to match the statewide Obama % vote, serving as the median district. It doubles as a possible black opportunity seat.
3 (green): 77.4 White, 14.2 Black; 42.6 Obama, 56.5 McCain; 44.3 Dem, 55.7 Rep. Coastal NC district, splits no counties, beautiful shape and wonderful CoI.
4 (teal): 65.4 White, 19 Black; 57.8 Obama, 41.2 McCain; 53.8 Dem, 46.2 Rep.
5 (sky blue): 65.3 White, 22.9 Black; 52.5 Obama, 46.7 McCain; 49.9 Dem, 50.1 Rep. This seat is a true swing district.
6 (dark magenta): 64.7 White, 24.4 Black; 59.6 Obama, 39.4 McCain; 58.5 Dem, 41.5 Rep.
7 (black): 48.2 White, 32.7 Black, 8.9 Native; 56.2 Obama, 43.2 McCain; 60.1 Dem, 39.9 Rep.
8 (gold): 75.1 White, 13.5 Black; 39.4 Obama, 59.6 McCain; 40.7 Dem, 59.3 Rep.
9 (pink): 77.2 White, 12.5 Black; 38.4 Obama, 60.7 McCain; 37 Dem, 63 Rep. Eastern Charlotte McMansion surburbs.
10 (chartreuse): 80.7 White, 11.5 Black, 37.6 Obama, 61.5 McCain; 37.9 Dem, 62.1 Rep. Western Charlotte McMansion surburbs.
11 (orange): 45.8 Obama, 52.8 McCain; 47.3 Dem, 52.7 Rep. The old 11th restored in all its glory.
12 (cyan): 47.6 White, 34.1 Black, 11.8 Hispanic; 67 Obama, 32.3 McCain; 61.6 Dem, 38.4 Rep.
13 (sienna): 34.7 Obama, 63.8 McCain; 37.3 Dem, 62.7 Rep. Winston Salem suburbs along with NC wine country.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

MO fair map

1 (gray): 51.2 White, 42.2 Black; 72.6 Obama, 26.6 McCain; 74.9 Dem, 25.1 Rep.
2 (red): 56.2 Obama, 42.6 McCain; 60.4 Dem, 39.6 Rep.
3 (purple): 39.1 Obama, 59.6 McCain; 44.3 Dem, 55.7 Rep.
4 (green): 59.1 Obama, 39.8 McCain; 62.4 Dem, 37.6 Rep.
5 (black): 49.2 Obama, 49.3 McCain; 51.9 Dem, 49.1 Rep.
6 (gold): 42.3 Obama, 56.3 McCain; 44.5 Dem, 55.5 Rep.
7 (teal): 35.3 Obama, 63.3 McCain; 36.7 Dem, 63.3 Rep.
8 (white): 34.8 Obama, 63.6 McCain; 39.5 Dem, 60.5 Rep.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I don't want to tamper with the lines too much in Kent, or add Ottawa and Allengan, b/c the 2nd is designed to be a Swing district. (a solid D seat solely in such a region as Western Michigan seems impossible to me).  Though if that wasn't a concern I would redraw the lines.
Minor changes in Kent are fine, though. As long as all of Grand Rapids is in the seat, it won't be solid R. Perhaps add Grand Rapids Township and take out the rest of Wyoming?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I don't want to tamper with the lines too much in Kent, or add Ottawa and Allengan, b/c the 2nd is designed to be a Swing district. (a solid D seat solely in such a region as Western Michigan seems impossible to me).  Though if that wasn't a concern I would redraw the lines.
Minor changes in Kent are fine, though. As long as all of Grand Rapids is in the seat, it won't be solid R. Perhaps add Grand Rapids Township and take out the rest of Wyoming?

The scoring rules are designed to punish political gerrymanders that have poor shapes. If you are going to gerrymander CD 2 I'd recommend putting Grandville, Wyoming and Kentwood in CD 3 and everything to their north in CD 2. That puts CD 2 at D+2 (55.2% Obama 08). The erosity along the border is 10, which is much better than the 18 in your most recent version. However the whole county version I suggested only has an erosity of 4.

You can also reduce erosity by combining the two fragments in the CD 6 chop of Allegan. If you don't like the combination in Allegan, a chop in Barry would score the same.

What're your thoughts about Saginaw? That large chop is costly in scoring, but shifting Gratiot to reduce the Saginaw chop helps a lot.

Does "everything north" mean all the county north or just areas to the west of Courtland Township?
Also I did play around with Saginaw County quite a bit, I wanted to avoid splitting Saginaw city itself. It took some time accomplishing that.
I hadn't considered shifting Gratiot. That definitely would have to be something I would have to consider.
What would the Saginaw chop look like if I did that?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

23 full counties.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Blue has 4 full counties, and is D+5
White is D+17

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

VA non-partisan map, no VRA

1 (gold): 63.8 W, 27.7 B; 52.5 O, 46.7 M; 48.3 D, 51.7 R.
2 (gray): 60.4 W, 26.2 B; 55.9 O, 43.6 M; 51.4 D, 48.6 R.
3 (slate blue): 55.7 W, 37.6 B; 54.7 O, 44.6 M; 50.7 D, 49.3 R.
4 (teal): 58.8 W, 30 B; 57.7 O, 41.6 M; 51.8 D, 48.2 R.
5 (cyan): 71.9 W, 22.1 B; 47.7 O, 51.4 M; 45.2 D, 54.8 R.
6 (deep pink): 83.7 W, 10.5 B; 41.8 O, 57.1 M; 40.9 D, 59.1 R.
7 (red): 80.7 W, 10.1 B; 44.6 O, 54.4 M; 41.1 D, 58.9 R.
8 (blue): 55.3 W, 15.1 H, 14.1 A, 13 B; 62.4 O, 36.9 M; 57.7 D, 42.3 R.
9 (chartreuse): 40 O, 58.6 M; 43.3 D, 56.7 R.
10 (dark magenta): 54.9 W, 17 H, 14.6 B, 11.1 A; 56.5 O, 42.8 M; 49.4 D, 50.6 R.
11 (green): 61.5 W, 16.1 A, 13.7 H; 64.3 O, 34.9 M; 60 D, 40 R.
Only 4 counties that could fit in one congressional district are split.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Illinois Republican gerrymander

1 (gray): 57 B, 29 W, 12.1 H; 84.6 O, 14.8 M.
2 (cyan): 52.4 B, 34.2 W; 90.7 O, 8.6 M.
3 (chartreuse): 52.7 O, 46 M.
4 (deep pink): 43.7 H, 26.1 W, 22.3B; 83.1 O, 16 M.
5 (slate blue): 60.1 W, 18.5 H, 10.5 A; 79.1 O, 19.5 M.
6 (lime): 55.1 O, 43.6 M.
7 (olive): 44.7 H, 27.6 W, 24.4 B; 85.2 O, 13.9 M.
8 (dark salmon): 73.6 W, 12.3 A, 11 H; 60.3 O, 38.6 M.
9 (dark orange): 69.4 W, 16.7 H; 59.5 O, 39.4 M.
10 (cornflower blue): 71.1 W, 14.3 H; 55.9 O, 42.7 M.
11 (blue): 83.1 W, 12.7 B; 50 O, 48.3 M.
12 (dark magenta): 50.1 O, 48.2 M.
13 (dark slate blue): 63.6 W, 23.1 W; 56.4 O, 42.4 M.
14 (red): 50.4 O, 47.8 M.
15 (teal): 76.6 W, 12.2 H; 54.3 O, 44.3 M.
16 (green): 50.9 O, 47.5 M.
17 (gold): 50.1 O, 48.3 M.
18 (white): 54.5 O, 43.8 M.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Non-partisan map of KS

1 (blue): This seat is the largest one in the state, and encompasses the vast majority of the state's population outside of the metro areas of Topeka, Kansas City, and Wichita. 29.7 O, 68.4 M; R+23.
2 (green): This district includes most of the outer reaches of the Kansas City metro not in the 3rd. It also includes all of the Topeka MSA as well as the rural Southeastern part of the state. 45.6 O, 52.5 M; R+7.
3 (purple): This seat is little altered from the current version. It barely changes at all, and thus retains its heavily urban territory. 48.7 O, 50 M; R+4.
4 (red): This seat centers on the five counties of the Wichita CSA (which it has the entirety of), and grabs part of Reno County, including all of Hutchinson. 40.6 O, 57.5 M; R+14.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Non-partisan map of KS

1 (blue): This seat is the largest one in the state, and encompasses the vast majority of the state's population outside of the metro areas of Topeka, Kansas City, and Wichita. 29.7 O, 68.4 M; R+23.
2 (green): This district includes most of the outer reaches of the Kansas City metro not in the 3rd. It also includes all of the Topeka MSA as well as the rural Southeastern part of the state. 45.6 O, 52.5 M; R+7.
3 (purple): This seat is little altered from the current version. It barely changes at all, and thus retains its heavily urban territory. 48.7 O, 50 M; R+4.
4 (red): This seat centers on the five counties of the Wichita CSA (which it has the entirety of), and grabs part of Reno County, including all of Hutchinson. 40.6 O, 57.5 M; R+14.

Why would a non-partisan map chop Reno county, if populations don't have to be exact? There are plenty of combinations of other counties that don't chop it.

I liked the square ish shape that resulted. That was part of it. The 4th was being designed to be a more urban district (within reason) and once I drew in all of Metro Wichita I had a certain number of people left. I reached quota in a way that furthered my goals, I think.
What whole county district combinations regarding the 4th do you have in mind?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

What about this?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Indiana Democratic gerrymander

1 (blue): D+6
2 (green): D+2
3 (dark magenta): R+10
4 (red): D+3
5 (gold): R+10
6 (teal): R+11
7 (dark gray): D+3
8 (slate blue): R+1
9 (cyan): R+9