Fair redistricting: Illinois

[Hoosier_Nick]

Can we extend this a day? I've been insanely busy and just realized the deadline is in an hour and a half. I love making maps of Indiana and I'd feel bummed out if I couldn't participate, haha.

[Hoosier_Nick]

I JUST WROTE A REALLY REALLY LONG WRITE-UP ABOUT THIS BUT IT DELETED UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Either way, here are the new and old PVIs.
OLD:
Indiana 1  D+8   
Indiana 2   R+11
Indiana 3   R+18
Indiana 4   R+17   
Indiana 5   R+9   
Indiana 6   R+18
Indiana 7   D+11
Indiana 8   R+15
Indiana 9   R+13

NEW:
Indiana 1  D+8
Indiana 2  R+12
Indiana 3  R+17
Indiana 4  R+15
Indiana 5  R+17
Indiana 6  R+15
Indiana 7  D+16
Indiana 8  R+16
Indiana 9  R+14

To make it quick, this map accomplishes everything I wanted. Has 2 suburban seats (IN-05, IN-08) instead of the million we have now (IN-04, IN-05, IN-06, IN-09), Has one centralized rust belt seat (IN-06), divides the 8th and 9th by horizontal geography rather than vertical which makes more sense given Southern Indiana's cultural similarity to the South. It also gives the Northern 3 townships of Marion County to IN-07, which makes more sense given urbanization, racial, etc. patterns of the county. There are also only 8 county splits without comprises geographical compaction.

[Hoosier_Nick]

I JUST WROTE A REALLY REALLY LONG WRITE-UP ABOUT THIS BUT IT DELETED UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Either way, here are the new and old PVIs.
OLD:
Indiana 1  D+8   
Indiana 2   R+11
Indiana 3   R+18
Indiana 4   R+17   
Indiana 5   R+9   
Indiana 6   R+18
Indiana 7   D+11
Indiana 8   R+15
Indiana 9   R+13

NEW:
Indiana 1  D+8
Indiana 2  R+12
Indiana 3  R+17
Indiana 4  R+15
Indiana 5  R+17
Indiana 6  R+15
Indiana 7  D+16
Indiana 8  R+16
Indiana 9  R+14

To make it quick, this map accomplishes everything I wanted. Has 2 suburban seats (IN-05, IN-08) instead of the million we have now (IN-04, IN-05, IN-06, IN-09), Has one centralized rust belt seat (IN-06), divides the 8th and 9th by horizontal geography rather than vertical which makes more sense given Southern Indiana's cultural similarity to the South. It also gives the Northern 3 townships of Marion County to IN-07, which makes more sense given urbanization, racial, etc. patterns of the county. There are also only 8 county splits without comprises geographical compaction.

That’s a great map. I love what you did with the Indy metro and the big western district is cool as well. Also glad you put the rural northwestern counties with that district instead of with the region district.

Thank you! And I agree about the Region, it makes a lot more sense to include Michigan City in Lake County's District rather  than the very rural counties south of Lake/Porter. With all do respect, I really don't understand why so many people did that since it means you have a few counties completely disconnected from the Chicago metro in the same district as near-Chicago.

[Hoosier_Nick]

Packing urban areas together too heavily guarantees a polarized map with fewer meaningful contests. Having some competitive seats means that when there is a swing in the mood of the electorate, the results respond with a changed delegation. If every state in the country only grouped like socioeconomic areas to form districts, I suspect that wave elections would have very little impact on Congress.

Although I like the sound of this idea, it doesn't make as much sense when it's put into place, tbh. How would we do this in Massachusetts? Oklahoma? West Virginia? Unless we gerrymandered these states to oblivion, we won't get even close to representational government. So if we do this in states like Indiana, attempting to create competitive seats for the sake of competitiveness, we are putting ourselves in a position where in order to be fair we have to do this everywhere. So while sure, it's good to have competitive districts, I'm not a huge fan of arbitrarily placing republican voters in a democratic district to spread out the potential democratic wins (or visa versa, obviously.)