Forum Redistricting Commission

[publicunofficial]

Also what preferences does everyone have for states? The biggest question to figure out is the number of districts we want to work with, I think. Which categories in the following tier list are acceptable to y'all? At what point, if any, will the exercise become too big or too small?

Big Four: CA/TX/FL/NY
Large States: IL/PA/OH/MI/GA/NC
Medium States: NJ/VA/WA/AZ/IN/TN/MA
Small States: MD/WI/MO/MN/AL/SC/CO
Tiny States: KY/LA/CT/OK/OR
Simple States: the rest (four districts or less)

I would prefer to avoid the Big Four (Otherwise known as the computer crashers).

Of the large states, IL, PA, OH, MI can also slow down stuff (this is less of a problem in NC/GA due to smaller precinct sizes).

If people want a state with a sort of large, densely populated 'metro' feeling like NY or CA, may I suggest NJ? It has a lot of districts and tends to feel larger when one draws it.

NY and California crash DRA for me, but Florida and Texas are fine.

[publicunofficial]

1) Virginia
2) Wisconsin
3) Indiana
4) Kentucky

[publicunofficial]

Sorry to spam the thread, but I'd like to request that you guys add Washington State to your lists.  It's map is atrocious; it basically strings (gerrymanders) all the towns North of Seattle to make the second district safe for Democrats, and combines the Seattle suburbs with heavily Republican counties in the East (which is bad taste in the first place) to make it non-competitive:




Terrible, terrible map. 

IIRC there are also issues about small/seasonal mountain roadways being the only routes connecting districts over the crest of the Cascade Range (and it looks like two districts cross over the range when one would have been sufficient)

Okanogan and Whatcom are the counties that shouldn't connect due to the routes being impassible for most of the year, but they aren't connected in the current map. Chelan and Kittitas connect via major highways to King County.

Also I think the Cascades rule is overrated. You only HAVE to do it once, but unless you do it twice the 3rd has to split counties unnecessarily.

[publicunofficial]

Seems like a fair format to me.

[publicunofficial]

Here's my initial Virginia map.







District 1 (Blue)

• Deviation: 290
• Election 2008: John McCain - 54.4%, Barack Obama - 44.7%
• Racial Breakdown: 73% White, 15.3% Black, 6.2% Hispanic

District 2 (Green)

• Deviation: -422
• Election 2008: Barack Obama - 49.8%, John McCain - 49.4%
• Racial Breakdown: 62.6% White, 23.3% Black, 5.9% Hispanic

District 3 (Purple)

• Deviation: -30
• Election 2008: Barack Obama - 64%, John McCain - 35.2%
• Racial Breakdown: 48.8% White, 35.2% Black, 5.9% Hispanic

District 4 (Red)

• Deviation: 83
• Election 2008: Barack Obama - 67.6%, John McCain - 31.7%
• Racial Breakdown: 51.8% Black, 39.3% White, 5.2% Hispanic

District 5 (Yellow)

• Deviation: -903
• Election 2008: John McCain - 51.2%, Barack Obama - 47.8%
• Racial Breakdown: 71.7% White, 21.5% Black

District 6 (Teal)

• Deviation: 586
• Election 2008: John McCain - 56.4%, Barack Obama - 42.5%
• Racial Breakdown: 83.9% White, 7.9% Black, 5.1% Hispanic

District 7 (Silver)

• Deviation: 352
• Election 2008: John McCain - 57.9%, Barack Obama - 41.3%
• Racial Breakdown: 76.2% White, 13.1% Black

District 8 (Slate Blue)

• Deviation: 384
• Election 2008: Barack Obama - 68.2%, John McCain - 30.9%
• Racial Breakdown: 52.8% White, 12.9% Black, 18.2% Hispanic 19.7%, 11.5% Asian

District 9 (Light Blue)

• Deviation: 501
• Election 2008: John McCain - 59.5%, Barack Obama - 39.1%
• Racial Breakdown: 91.8% White

District 10 (Pink)

• Deviation: -219
• Election 2008: Barack Obama - 57.4%, John McCain - 41.9%
• Racial Breakdown: 61.4% White, 6.2% Black, 11.6% Hispanic, 17.3% Asian

District 11 (Light Green)

• Deviation: -624
• Election 2008: Barack Obama - 58%, John McCain - 41.3%
• Racial Breakdown: 51.3% White, 14.8% Black, 18.2% Hispanic, 12% Asian

Things I like about my map:
-District 6 is pretty much just Shenandoah Valley + Roanoke, making a very clean CoI
-Clean Majority-Minority district (VA-03), along with a black majority district (VA-04)
-Very few splits around Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Newport area. Most maps I've seen cut this area to shreds.
-5 Solid Democratic districts, 4 Solid Republican districts, 2 competitive Districts (VA-02 and VA-05)

Dislikes:
-I'd like to keep Richmond whole, but doing so would force multiple splits around Chesapeake Bay in order to form a majority-black district.
-More county splits than probably necessary.[/list]

[publicunofficial]

Now with city lines

[publicunofficial]

I vote aye on item six.