Alternate US States (Solid4096 51 edition)

[America needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

Source: QGIS Screenshot, Maps Provided by US Census Bureau.

Before you ask, I landed at 51 by sheer luck. I was not going for any number in particular.

To begin, when I started this project, I thought up some goals. In no particular order, here are the goals I was trying to accomplish.

Make states more equal in population.
Make state borders better reflective of communities of interest.
Make state borders better reflective of natural geography.

In many ways, this is similar to a project done by Antonio V several years back. However, I would say that I was distinctly more aggressive with my willingness to make changes, and there are many places of the map where that shows. My choices can obviously be contestable at times, but I tried my best to stick to my criteria in a sensible manner. I am very interested in feedback, however, and I will make sure to consider suggestions regarding the project carefully as they are made. Borders, names, officeholders, local politics, are all among the topic where I am willing to take comments and criticism. I hope to cover my thoughts on downballot, especially Senate and Governor Election results going back to 2000, and a summary of Presidential Election results going back to 1972.

[America needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

As an aside, I know that I totally did flip the 2016 Presidential Result in this map, but I will be mostly ignoring such flipped results when working through this project.

[America needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

Here are the current tentative names and current border population values for 2010:

[Sic Semper Fascistis]

I see a lot of commonalities with my own 51-State project from back in the day, so I mostly know how this will turn out. Still, I'll be looking out for novelties.