Utah 2020 Redistricting

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

The Independent Commission's draft maps are available on their website. Direct links:

• Congress
• State Senate
• State House
• State Board of Education

They're... kinda all weird/bad?

The state legislative redistricting committee won't publish any draft maps until they've concluded their public hearings, which begin this week.

As of yesterday, both the commission and the legislative committee have started accepting maps from the public. Links to submit maps are found here for the Independent Commission, and here for the legislative committee. If you export your DRA maps as block assignment CSVs, you should be able to import them into the ESRI redistricting software that both groups are using.

Those would all be deep red…

So much for “independent commission” fighting gerrymandering

[Nyvin]

The Independent Commission's draft maps are available on their website. Direct links:

• Congress
• State Senate
• State House
• State Board of Education

They're... kinda all weird/bad?

The state legislative redistricting committee won't publish any draft maps until they've concluded their public hearings, which begin this week.

As of yesterday, both the commission and the legislative committee have started accepting maps from the public. Links to submit maps are found here for the Independent Commission, and here for the legislative committee. If you export your DRA maps as block assignment CSVs, you should be able to import them into the ESRI redistricting software that both groups are using.

The congressional one is just a simple least change map.

[Stuart98]

Those would all be deep red…

So much for “independent commission” fighting gerrymandering

The congressional one is just a simple least change map.

Both of you seem to have missed the bar along the top that allows you to switch between different draft maps; there's something like ten different ones for Congress, only one of which can be construed as a least change map. The commission divided into three groups a couple weeks ago which are drawing different maps. The map shown by default is the one that Rob Bishop's team drew and was discussed earlier in this thread; I doubt there's any significance to it being the default map visible. The draft maps will be revised based on feedback from hearings across the state (which started yesterday) and then narrowed down to three in November.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Those would all be deep red…

So much for “independent commission” fighting gerrymandering

The congressional one is just a simple least change map.

Both of you seem to have missed the bar along the top that allows you to switch between different draft maps; there's something like ten different ones for Congress, only one of which can be construed as a least change map. The commission divided into three groups a couple weeks ago which are drawing different maps. The map shown by default is the one that Rob Bishop's team drew and was discussed earlier in this thread; I doubt there's any significance to it being the default map visible. The draft maps will be revised based on feedback from hearings across the state (which started yesterday) and then narrowed down to three in November.

well I am dumb. That's what I get for tying to look at it on my phone without my glasses

[Nyvin]

Those would all be deep red…

So much for “independent commission” fighting gerrymandering

The congressional one is just a simple least change map.

Both of you seem to have missed the bar along the top that allows you to switch between different draft maps; there's something like ten different ones for Congress, only one of which can be construed as a least change map. The commission divided into three groups a couple weeks ago which are drawing different maps. The map shown by default is the one that Rob Bishop's team drew and was discussed earlier in this thread; I doubt there's any significance to it being the default map visible. The draft maps will be revised based on feedback from hearings across the state (which started yesterday) and then narrowed down to three in November.

Oh okay,  Orange Team Draft 1 is okay, not bad.   Tooele County can go with SLC.   Not the most conventional approach but it works.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Orange Congressional 3 Draft 2 is my favorite congressional draft map. One SLC district, one Provo district, a north and a south

[Oryxslayer]

Today the Utah commission will be looking at public submissions.

[Stuart98]

The Independent Commission's draft maps are available on their website. Direct links:

• Congress
• State Senate
• State House
• State Board of Education

These links have been updated with all the legal map proposals from the public.

Public comments are finally visible too.

[BoiseBoy]

Today the Utah commission will be looking at public submissions.

Is there a link to their meeting?

EDIT: Nevermind. Found it.

[Non Swing Voter]

LOL an independent commission drew that?  Look at that Salt Lake District.

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

LOL an independent commission drew that?  Look at that Salt Lake District.

Yeah, independent commissions are actually pretty sh**tty. If you want reasonable maps, the only way to reliably get that is to remove the incentive to gerrymander.

There will always be an incentive to gerrymander in a first past the post district-based system. That incentive can only be removed if you remove the connection between partisan outcomes and district shapes.

Switch to a different electoral system such as a mixed member proportional system, where only some members of Congress are elected in districts, and the remainder are elected in leveling seats which ensure that the final partisan outcome is always proportional to the popular vote. With an electoral system along those lines, nobody would care about the district lines since they would have no partisan effects, and the only thing with a partisan effect on control of the legislature would be the overall votes of the people. Consequently, whoever was in charge of drawing lines would simply draw reasonable compact districts.

But as long as we remain hitched to a first past the post system, the problem of gerrymandering will remain.

[Oryxslayer]

LOL an independent commission drew that?  Look at that Salt Lake District.

I'm not quite sure what you tare talking about? There are like 20 proposed commission maps, click on the tabs at the top and the dropdown. The one at the front just so happened to be drawn by a subcommittee of taskmasters that included a former Republican congressman...so yeah it is a least change.

Not your fault, some other people already made the same UI mistake. I wouldn't be surprised if they stuck it at the front to ensure said plan has negative press.

[politicallefty]

I haven't followed this topic and didn't look through the other maps since I wanted to draw one from scratch. If I was going to draw a fair map, this is what I would draw:



I think it pretty much speaks for itself. Only two counties are split: Salt Lake (which is necessary) and Utah. What I found out and really like is that this naturally creates a nice northern district. The five counties in this UT-01 only deviate by 328 above ideal (which is the largest deviation in this map). I also think a compact SLC district within Salt Lake County makes by far the most sense. I also felt combining the remainder of Salt Lake County with most of Utah County (including Provo and Orem) for a compact urban/suburban seat made the most sense. UT-04 is not perfect from a COI standpoint, but there's always going to be a problem on a 4-district map and I felt this is the least problematic on that aspect.


I was looking over the draft maps on the Utah commission site. It's amazing how awful most of them are. The one I like the most (in part because it's most similar to what I drew) is Public Submission: TD (2). The one problem is that it doesn't put Box Elder in the northern district.

[Stuart98]

I haven't followed this topic and didn't look through the other maps since I wanted to draw one from scratch. If I was going to draw a fair map, this is what I would draw:



I think it pretty much speaks for itself. Only two counties are split: Salt Lake (which is necessary) and Utah. What I found out and really like is that this naturally creates a nice northern district. The five counties in this UT-01 only deviate by 328 above ideal (which is the largest deviation in this map). I also think a compact SLC district within Salt Lake County makes by far the most sense. I also felt combining the remainder of Salt Lake County with most of Utah County (including Provo and Orem) for a compact urban/suburban seat made the most sense. UT-04 is not perfect from a COI standpoint, but there's always going to be a problem on a 4-district map and I felt this is the least problematic on that aspect.


I was looking over the draft maps on the Utah commission site. It's amazing how awful most of them are. The one I like the most (in part because it's most similar to what I drew) is Public Submission: TD (2). The one problem is that it doesn't put Box Elder in the northern district.

Morgan County goes in the Northern District, a majority of the workers in it commute to Ogden for work. Splitting North Salt Lake from the rest of Davis is a lesser evil imo.

[politicallefty]

One of my primary goals with this map was the creation of a SLC district entirely within the county. Once you start splitting counties like that, it ruins the rationale I was going for. I also liked that the northern seat was just five counties and no splits, a very coherent and logical district. Current Supreme Court precedent would likely allow for such a tiny deviation with that goal in mind. I'm not disputing your reasoning, just explaining mine.

I'm also not crazy about having Park City in the large UT-04, but no Utah map is going to be perfect. On your Utah Gerrymandering Bingo post, I only hit two squares. My map doesn't put Park City with Salt Lake County and it puts Park City and Vernal in the same district.

[😥]

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/redistricting-2022-maps/utah/

6 proposed maps are now on 538 tracker

[Stuart98]

Been in the room watching the independent commission narrow down their 12 maps to refine before sending them to the legislature.

VOD link

School board, house, and senate maps went through smoothly, but Bishop and Durham have been having explosive arguments over how congressional maps should look. Divide is between sending in a map with all urban-rural mix districts and sending in only maps containing one or two completely urban districts. Bishop is insisting that his green map that nobody else supports should be one of the maps. Threatened to resign his position at one point. Chair Facer is now adjourning the meeting in the hopes that they'll resolve the impasse tomorrow as I'm typing this.

I submitted a compromise map to the commission that resolves Bishop's concern of every district being urban-rural split and Durham's concern that Salt Lake County should only be split once. Splits St. George though, and Bishop may reject the new map out of hand specifically because it only splits Salt Lake County once (even though one of the districts would be completely solidly Republican).

[It’s so Joever]

If Utah Republicans are really stupid enough to think a 4-0 map is a good idea...lol let them have their dummymander.

[BoiseBoy]

If Utah Republicans are really stupid enough to think a 4-0 map is a good idea...lol let them have their dummymander.

When Utah gets a 5th district after 2030, a DEM seat, if not two, is practically a guarantee.

[Stuart98]

The Independent Commission's final public hearing in West Valley City is ongoing.

Once the public comment portion is over the commission will be meeting to whittle down their congressional maps to three and conduct other commission business. I'm in the room and will be staying for the duration.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

The Independent Commission's final public hearing in West Valley City is ongoing.

Once the public comment portion is over the commission will be meeting to whittle down their congressional maps to three and conduct other commission business. I'm in the room and will be staying for the duration.

Best of luck!

[Stuart98]

Meeting is adjourned without discussing the particulars on any congressional maps. Commission is choosing to delay further discussion on congressional maps (and other matters) until Monday, so that numbers can be run on new map submissions.

Monday's meeting won't have in person public attendees I don't think (or a public comment period) but will have a livestream.

[Stuart98]

The meeting is now live.

The commission will be selecting their congressional maps, finalizing the other maps they previously selected, and performing a partisan evaluation of their maps to make sure none of them unduly favor or disfavor a particular party.

[Stuart98]

Rob Bishop has resigned from the commission. This late in the process, is he going to have to be replaced?

Reason for resignation is frustration with the commission drifting away from his approach to having gerrymandered urban-rural mix districts.

[Sol]

Rob Bishop has resigned from the commission. This late in the process, is he going to have to be replaced?

Reason for resignation is frustration with the commission drifting away from his approach to having gerrymandered urban-rural mix districts.

Bishop wants a bunch of rurban seats? odd