Dave's Redistricting App

[Bacon King]

The MA map currently looks as awful as it does as an attempt to make sure no Republicans under any circumstances would win any seat.

[Bacon King]

Interesting GA map.

Something like the red district will probably actually exist- there's been a big call in the northwest to get their own district, and IIRC the chairman of the redistricting committee in the State House is from up there and has Congressional ambitions...

The neon green district would make me feel really bad for John Barrow. He lived in Athens (Clarke County) when he first got elected to the district, then when the GOP did their mid-decade redistricting that cut Athens out so Barrow moved to Savannah (Chatham County). Now your map takes Savannah out of the district too so poor Barrow would have to move a second time in six years!

What's the race breakdown of Bishop's district (goldish brown)? I feel that he could quite easily lose it. In fact, if he had that district last week I'm pretty sure he would have lost.

Demographic change would definitely make the Cobb and Gwinnett districts in your map competitive for the Democrats after a few years (which is exactly why we won't see something resembling those districts after the GOP actually redistricts!) Cobb county was 44.5% Obama in 2008, and from eyeballing it I'd say Obama probably got around 46-47% in your Gwinnett district.

The only district I really don't like is the pink district. It looks like a hodgepodge of different areas without any central community of interest. Walton and Oconee are super-white wealthy outer suburbia, while Rockdale, Newton, and Henry (to a lesser extent) are middle class areas with sizable minority communities. Bibb County is the city of Macon and doesn't fit in with the Atlanta suburbs at all (even though that happens in the current districts, lol) while the counties in the middle of the district have little in common with either Macon or the suburb areas.

Still, nice map.

[Bacon King]

I gotta say, I love how the app w/ census data has boxes for both population and VAP.

[Bacon King]

It's pretty easy to make a McCain district in southern Brooklyn; I just made a 59% McCain district there.

[Bacon King]

Are the Hispanic areas dense enough for two districts, or will we be seeing a return of the Earmuffs?

[Bacon King]

Yeah, I always just use screenshots. Use your keyboard's "Print Scr" button, then paste into MSPaint or something; modify as necessary.

[Bacon King]

More states with partisan data: GA, OH, SC, TX, and WI, with the caveat: "Note: The statewide vote totals for Georgia and South Carolina will look very low. That's because those states did not report early and absentee voting by precinct, and there was a lot of early voting. Rather than attempt to distribute them, we've left the precincts as is. It still should give a pretty accurate representation of Dem/Rep strength."

Note that some Georgia counties (Gwinnett is the only one I know of, but I'm pretty sure there are more) do report absentees by precinct and they are included in the App numbers.

[Bacon King]

The Georgia data has been updated to reflect the absentee/early voting totals.

A few precincts, especially around Columbus, seem to be missing all of the data.

Which precincts? It could just be the uninhabited parts of Fort Benning.

[Bacon King]

Heh, I managed to draw a 51.9% Obama district in Oklahoma. Zig-zags across the state and back taking in every remotely Democratic precinct.

[Bacon King]

What exactly went into the Massachusetts average? It's pretty easy to draw a 6R-3D map and there's no way that's right.