One Voter, One Vote Congressional Districts
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Author Topic: One Voter, One Vote Congressional Districts  (Read 3262 times)
jimrtex
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« on: March 27, 2021, 09:40:24 AM »

Under the US Constitution Representatives are popularly elected. Though representatives are supposedly chosen by the People of each State, they are actually chosen by a certain class of individuals, which in modern terms is composed of US Citizens over the age of 18, regardless of race or sex, excluding felons, and those adjudicated as incompetent. Some persons voluntarily exclude themselves for religious or other reasons.

Quote from: Article I, Section 2
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

The time, place, and manner of the election of Representatives may be prescribed by the legislative process in each state, but that may be overridden by Congress.

Quote from: 2 U.S. Code § 7
The Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November, in every even numbered year, is established as the day for the election, in each of the States and Territories of the United States, of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress commencing on the 3d day of January next thereafter.

Quote from: Article 1, Section 4
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

Congress has set the time for election of Representatives, and that representative must be elected by single-member districts. Congress has provided no direction as to the composition of those districts.

Quote from: 2 U.S. Code § 2c
In each State entitled in the Ninety-first Congress or in any subsequent Congress thereafter to more than one Representative under an apportionment made pursuant to the provisions of section 2a(a) of this title, there shall be established by law a number of districts equal to the number of Representatives to which such State is so entitled, and Representatives shall be elected only from districts so established, no district to elect more than one Representative (except that a State which is entitled to more than one Representative and which has in all previous elections elected its Representatives at Large may elect its Representatives at Large to the Ninety-first Congress).

In Wesberry v Sanders 376 U.S. 1 (1964), the Supreme Court ruled that election of representative by disparate numbers of voters violated Article I, Section 2]

Quote from: Wesberry v Sanders
We hold that, construed in its historical context, the command of Art. I, § 2 that Representatives be chosen "by the People of the several States" means that, as nearly as is practicable, one man's vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as another's.

In 2020 in Texas, 461,089 voters in TX-21 elected their representative, while only 160,781 voters in TX-33 elected their representative. Relative to the voters in TX-33, the voters in TX-21 suffered a 65.1% debasement of the value of their vote.

Wesberry v Sander goes on to suggest that if representative were elected at-large, we would not countenance giving voters in some areas three times as many votes as others.

We might elaborate on this idea. If Texas used proportional representation we would expect that each representative be elected, as nearly as practicable, by 314,363 voters.

There is no reason to pretend that geographical proportionality when electing by single-member districts is any different than political proportionality when elected by some systen such as STV.

This thread will demonstrate that it practicable to draw districts with equal numbers of voters.
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President Punxsutawney Phil
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« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2021, 09:49:50 AM »

Looks interesting.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2021, 04:22:12 PM »

These maps show the turnout in the presidential race divided by 1/39 of the statewide total. That is a district with a population of 1.000 is at the ideal size after redistricting and would not require adjustment except to accommodate neighboring districts.



San Antonio-Austin I-35 Corridor



Houston Area



DFW Area



The initial step will be to identify location of the three new districts. We calculate the total  turnout for each combination of three districts that are co-adjacent and place the new district at their junction.

The combinations greater than four districts are:

4.224 TX-10, TX-25, and TX-31 in the Round Rock, north Austin area.
4.208 TX-3, TX-4, and TX-26 in the Frisco area.
4.003 TX-7, TX-10, and TX-22 in the Katy area.
4.001 TX-2, TX-8, and TX-10 in the Spring area.
4.000 TX-12, TX-24, and TX-26 in northern Tarrant County.

We can divide the population of the three district and still have population enough for all four new districts. This process will also place the new districts in high growth areas.

We will add the new districts one at a time. Creation of TX-37 in the Round Rock area, and TX-38 in the Frisco area will deplete the population of the last three combinations, so that TX-39 might be placed in a different location.

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jimrtex
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« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2021, 10:28:31 AM »

This is Pass 1 at TX-37 in the Round Rock/north Austin area.



The population of TX-37 (the Orange district) is 1.003, and are the precincts within about 20 miles of the intersection of TX-10, TX-25, and TX-31.

But too much of TX-37 comes from TX-31 which had its population reduced to 0.843. To correct for this we reduce the radius of our circle in TX-31, such that TX-31 remains at parity, while expanding the radius in TX-10 and TX-25.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #4 on: March 28, 2021, 09:41:01 PM »

This is TX-37 after the second pass.



The radius from TX-31 was reduced to about 14 miles, while for TX-10 and TX-25 it was increased to 23 miles. This leaves all the donor districts above parity.

The boundaries will be cleaned up later.

Next TX-38 will be created at the intersection of TX-3, TX-4, and TX-26 in the Frisco area. These three districts have a turnout equivalent to 4.208 districts (see DFW map above).
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« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2021, 07:29:55 AM »

Very cool, jimrtex. Amazing that turnout in one district was more than double turnout in another.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2021, 06:58:46 PM »

This map shows the new TX-38.



The first pass took too much of TX-3, not surprising since growth is stronger in Collin than Denton County at least that far north. Lake Dallas disrupts growth and/or provides locations for cities that are not pure prairie sprawl such as Lake Dallas and Little Elm. The main highway out of Dallas is heading northwest to Denton, while on the Collin side you have highways heading straight north to Frisco, Prosper, and beyond.

The placement of TX-39 took a slightly different approach.

Currently, there are 8 CD's with population substantially above parity:

TX-21 1.589 San Antonio-Austin-Hill Country
TX-26 1.521 Denton County
TX-3   1.489 Collin County
TX-22 1.455 Fort Bend-Brazoria
TX-10 1.453 Houston-Austin
TX-25 1.382 Johnson-Travis
TX-8   1.340 Montgomery County and points north.

Those that are struck out lost substantial population to TX-37 and TX-38, such that they have little to donate to TX-39. This had particular effect on the Houston area since TX-10 would have been a partner with either TX-8 or TX-22 to create the district in the Katy area or around Spring.

No three co-adjacent trio of districts had population for more than 3.711 districts. Creation of a new district would result in the donor districts being underpopulated.

Instead, the population of the secondary districts that surround the potential co-adjacent trios was added in. If these districts have a surplus, they can help replenish the donor districts. If they have a deficit, they may draw further from an already depleted district.

Based on this method, the intersection of TX-8, TX-10, and TX-17 was selected. This is just south of Brazos/College Station

Beginning with TX-6 in the north, and proceeding clockwise to include, TX-5, TX-1, TX-36, TX-2, TX-7, TX-22,TX-27, TX-35, TX-37, TX-31, and TX-25. Collectively, these 15 districts have enough electorate for 16.614 districts. That is, if we include TX-39, and spread the voters among all 16 districts, each would have a population of 1.038.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2021, 09:59:04 AM »

This is TX-39.



Because it is in a less urban area, the radius is about 60 miles compared to around 20 miles for TX-37 and TX-38.

While TX-10 and TX-17 are reduced below parity, there is sufficient population in the surrounding districts to restore those districts.

For TX-17, this is primarily from TX-6 and TX-25. For TX-10 it is mainly from TX-22.

The next step is too reduce county splits. A moderate cover rule will be applied. The number of districts permitted in a county will be:

ceil (pop + 0.3)

That is, counties with electorates below 70% of a quota shall be included in one district. Counties with population between 0.7 and 1.7 will be included in at most two districts, etc.

If smaller counties must be divided to equalize population, it will likely be at a different location. That is, the current splits were not made to recognize communities of interest, and in some cases were made simply to provide a fig leaf of contiguity (e.g. La Salle).
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beesley
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« Reply #8 on: April 02, 2021, 01:49:00 PM »

Great work. I can imagine huge differences in CA as well as TX.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #9 on: April 03, 2021, 03:01:38 PM »

Great work. I can imagine huge differences in CA as well as TX.
California provides votes cast for President and Governor by congressional district, senate district, assembly district, county, supervisor district, city, etc. It is in the Supplement to the Election Results. The last posted was in March 2019 for the 2018 election. They haven't yet posted anything for the 2020 election.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #10 on: April 03, 2021, 03:53:11 PM »
« Edited: April 05, 2021, 06:14:10 PM by jimrtex »

Edit: I had missed Limestone.

The next step is to reduce the number of county splits. Counties with less than 0.700 of the quota will be in a single district. If a split is necessary to balance population it can be added back at a later date.



In this maps, smaller counties that have an upper-left to lower-right cross-hatch are reduced to a single district. In the more rural parts of the state, the adjustment was done to favor the less populous district so as to reduce population inequality. In the following table, the underlined district will

Floyd: TX-19 0.004, TX -13 0.003

Stephens: TX-11 0.009, TX-19 0.004

Erath: TX-11 0.032, TX-25 0.026

Wood: TX-1 0.030, TX-5 0.048

Upshur: TX-1 0.018, TX4 0.047

Limestone: TX-8 0.014, TX-17 0.016

La Salle: TX-23 0.007, TX-28 0.001

San Patricio: TX-27 0.063, TX-34 0.026

This is kind of ugly, but I'm pretty sure that Nueces will end up in TX-34.

There are two remote urban counties that are split, but may have two districts.

El Paso: TX-16 0.834, TX-23 0.085

TX-16 will eventually have to take the entire county and beyond, but for now I'm just trying to clean up excessive splits.

Hidalgo: TX-15 0.527, TX-28 0.126, TX-34 0.108

Hidalgo is limited to two districts, and the county may be contained in a single strip. For now, we push the smallest portion (TX-34) out of the county. Eventually we will try to concentrate TX-15 in south Texas. TX-28 and TX-34 will continue to stretch to near San Antonio.

The other split counties will be discussed in conjunction with the San Antonio-Austin I-35 corridor; DFW; and Houston areas.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #11 on: April 04, 2021, 11:38:32 AM »

This is the San Antonio-Austin I-35 Corridor. The Challenge here is that both TX-21 and TX-35 run between Travis and Bexar counties. Meanwhile Comal and Hays counties are only able to support one district.

I decided to preserve the traditional configuration with TX-35 (aka Lloyd Doggett's district) in Travis County and TX-21 in Bexar County.



Bexar: TX-20 0.959, TX-21 0.494, TX-23 0.560, TX-28 0.260, TX-35 0.377

Bexar with an electorate of 2.651 shall have three (whole or partial) districts.

TX-28 and TX-35 the smallest districts in the county are eliminated. TX-23 is a Bexar County district masquerading as a West Texas district. A majority of voters are in Bexar County, and areas of TX-23 will be shifted into TX-16 (El Paso and Trans-Pecos) and TX-28 (Laredo and South Texas). Therefore TX-28 is added to TX-23. TX-35 is added to TX-21. This compensates for the shift of TX-21 to TX-35 in Travis County.

These changes should be regarded as rough cuts.

Travis: TX-10 0.161, TX-17 0.155, TX-21 0.432, TX-25 0.353, TX-35 0.294, TX-37 0.609

Travis with an electorate of 2.103 shall have three (whole or partial) districts. I am agnostic whether this is two whole districts and a small portion (10%) of another, or 70% of all three districts or some other combination.

TX-10 and TX-17 are pushed out of the county. There are three choices for the third district to be eliminated. TX-35 is the smallest district, but with its exclusion from Bexar, elimination from Travis would virtually eliminate the district. TX-21 is currently overpopulated and being switched to its more traditional, San Antonio-Hill Country configuration, so it is eliminated. TX-25 is preserved in the county as the only choice left.

TX-35 will absorb TX-10, TX-17, and TX-21 producing more of an east Austin district, with a higher minority percentage.

Comal: TX-21 0.247, TX-35 0.024

There is no reason to preserve the corridor of TX-35 to San Antonio.

Hays: TX-21 0.099, TX-25 0.124, TX-35 0.154

TX-35 is chosen as the dominant district. It is not necessary to determine whether TX-35 is entirely in Travis County at this time.

Williamson: TX-31 0.600, TX-37 0.391

Williamson (0.991) may have two districts, so no change is made at this point. Eventually it is likely that TX-31 will be made coextensive with Williamson, with TX-37 pushed entirely into Travis, and Bell moved to TX-17. But like in El Paso and Hidalgo, that change is premature.

Bell: TX-25 0.041, TX-31 0.399

The split counties below I-35 are being assigned so as to remove county splits. In some cases this will result in discontiguous districts. But for now we are just trying to get to whole counties.

Wilson: TX-15 0.007, TX-28 0.079

Guadalupe: TX-15 0.217, TX-35 0.51

Gonzales: TX-27 0.019, TX-34 0.008

Caldwell: TX-27 0.28, TX-35 0.024

Bastrop: TX-10 0.073, TX-17 0.002, TX-27 0.052

Lee: TX-10 0.018, TX-17 0.009; TX-39 0.001
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jimrtex
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« Reply #12 on: April 05, 2021, 09:06:14 AM »

These are split counties in the DFW area.



Tarrant: TX-6 0.827, TX-12 0.976, TX-24 0.487, TX-25 0.013, TX-26 0.295, TX-33 0.279.

Tarrant (2.876) may have 4 districts (wholly or partially) within the county. The tiny piece of TX-25 is given to TX-6. If we eliminated the next smallest district it would result in the elimination of TX-33. Instead we move the Tarrant portion of TX-26 to TX-24.

Dallas: TX-5 0.384, TX-24 0.497, TX-26 0.001, TX-30 0.917, TX-32 1.092, TX-33 0.276.

Dallas (3.167) may have 4 districts (wholly or partially within the county. The tiny piece of TX-26 is added to TX-24. If we eliminated the next smallest district, it would result in elimination of TX-33. Instead we will force TX-5 out of the county. The area will be given to TX-30 which will permit TX-33 to expand into the county.

Denton: TX-24 0.215, TX-26 0.770, TX-38 0.455

Denton (1.440) will have two districts wholly or partially in the county. TX-24 is removed, aligning the TX-26/TX-24 boundary on the county line.

Collin: TX-3 1.003, TX-4 0.061, TX-32 0.098, TX-38 0.535

The small portions of TX-4 and TX-38 are given to TX-3 for compactness reasons.

Wise: TX-12 0.041, TX-13 0.070

Grayson: TX-4 0.200, TX-38 0.004

This aligns the TX-38 boundary on the county line.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #13 on: April 05, 2021, 06:11:03 PM »

Houston Area Split Counties



Harris: TX-2 1.208, TX-7 1.094, TX-8 0.139, TX-9 0.573, TX-10 0.396, TX-18 0.864, TX-22 0.153, TX-29 0.555, TX-36 0.476, TX-39 0.197.

Harris (5.654) will have six districts wholly or entirely in the county. TX-2, TX-7, TX-9, TX-18, and TX-29 are the obvious choices for five districts, which are currently wholly in the county with the exception of TX-9.

It will be possible to make TX-8 coterminous with Montgomery, and TX-22 can be made whole in Fort Bend with its current footprint. The portion of TX-8 will be added to TX-12, and TX-22 to TX-29, its only adjacent neighbor.

TX-10 has more population in Harris than TX-39, and will become more Houston-oriented as it is forced out of Austin. This results in TX-36 being the smallest remaining district. For now, will be added to TX-36.

Fort Bend: TX-9 0.242, TX-22 0.993

Fort Bend (1.235) will have two districts wholly or in part in the district. No change is needed.

Montgomery: TX-8 0.633, TX-39 0.303

Montgomery (0.936) can have two districts, but almost can have one district entirely in the county. This will result in TX-36 becoming outside the core metro areas.

Brazoria: TX-14 0.225, TX-22 0.309

Since TX-22 can be placed wholly in Fort Bend, Brazoria is united in TX-14.

A number of counties were divided by creation of TX-39. These changes will fix to county boundaries.

Austin: TX-10 0.0.23, TX-39 0.027

This maintains connectivity for TX-10.

Brazos: TX-17 0.003, TX-39 0.309

Burleson: TX-17 0.005, TX-39 0.025

Fayette: TX-10 0.043, TX-39 0.002

Walker: TX-8 0.080, TX-39 0.002

Waller: TX-10 0.022, TX-39 0.057

This maintains connectivity for TX-10
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jimrtex
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« Reply #14 on: April 08, 2021, 02:13:24 PM »

Great work. I can imagine huge differences in CA as well as TX.
California provides votes cast for President and Governor by congressional district, senate district, assembly district, county, supervisor district, city, etc. It is in the Supplement to the Election Results. The last posted was in March 2019 for the 2018 election. They haven't yet posted anything for the 2020 election.
California has just now produced its Supplement of the Vote which provides presidential results by county, congressional district, senate district, assembly district, etc.

Congressional districts (based on 52) districts range from 1.333 for CA-4 (suburban Sacramento) to 0.511 for CA-21 (Central Valley).

CA-34, CA-40, CA-43, and CA-44 collectively are entitled to 2.900 districts, so you could eliminate the 53rd district locally in that area (south of downtown LA).

CA-8, CA-31, CA-32, CA-35, CA-36, and CA-41 collectively are entitled to 5.069 districts (San Gabriel valley out through San Bernardino and Riverside to Nevada and Arizona) and could lose a district.

CA-42, CA-45, CA-48, CA-49, CA-50, CA-52, and CA-53 are collectively entitled to 8.183 districts (this is central and southern Orange, southwestern Riverside, and northern San Diego). This area could add a district. This would avoid sliding districts around.

CA-16 and CA-21 in the Central Valley are entitled to 1.165 districts and could be merged, but there is not a clear choice of an area to add another district. These districts will have to be moved northward until surpluses in the Sacramento area can be picked up.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #15 on: April 08, 2021, 06:35:10 PM »

These are maps with splits of smaller counties eliminated, as well as removing excessive division of larger counties.









There are a number of clear problems:

(1) Pushing TX-5, TX-17, and TX-36 out of Dallas, Travis, and Harris counties has left them severely underpopulated.

(2) The border districts of TX-16, TX-28, TX-15, and TX-34 are severely underpopulated.

Solutions:

(A) TX-16 will expand to take the Trans-Pecos, eliminating the western half (by area) of TX-23.

(B) TX-15 will take all of Hidalgo and some counties along the Rio Grande. It will still be a fajita, but only going as far north as Atascosa.

(C) TX-34 will take Nueces, becoming a shortened fajita along the coast.

(D) (B) and (C) will free up counties east and southeast of San Antonio and Austin for TX-27.

(D) TX-28 will become untenable, and be eliminated in its current form. Webb and La Salle will be added to TX-23, returning it to more of its pre-2000 form.

(E) A new TX-28 will be formed from Comal, Hays, and the Hill Country counties currently in TX-21. TX-21 will be entirely in Bexar (subject to change).

(F) TX-37 will be moved wholly into Travis. TX-25 will be eliminated from Travis. Travis is entitled to 2.103 districts. This can be TX-35 and TX-37 wholly in Travis. The smidgen of 0.103 can be any district for balancing reasons. TX-25 is more DFW oriented.

(G) With TX-31 taking all of Williamson, Bell can be given to TX-17.

We can do an analysis of the DFW area. Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant counties has a population sufficient. for 9.180 districts. We have sufficient population for the 9 districts majorly in those counties, and a small surplus. We can shed Ellis, Navarro, and Parker.

(H) Ellis and Navarro will be given to TX-5. It will go from a largely Dallas district to a southeast suburban district with a core of Ellis, and Kaufman. Rockwall might be added.

(I) Parker will be given to TX-25 orienting it to a southern and western suburban district with a core of Parker, Hood, and Johnson.

(J) All of Montgomery will be given to TX-8. TX-39 will take the northern portions of TX-8.

(K) Jefferson will be shifted from TX-14 to TX-36.

We have helped restore population to TX-5, TX-17, and TX-36. The border districts will be closer to par.

At that point we can do a more detailed analysis of the large metropolitan areas collectively, and shifting counties for population balance.

The final step will reorganizing the districts in the largest counties. For now, they define little beyond what counties they will be in.

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jimrtex
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« Reply #16 on: April 13, 2021, 02:08:14 PM »

We now have a rough placement of districts, and can analyze the inter-regional flow to bring electorate balance.



West: TX-11, 13, 16, 19, and 25.  4.848 (deficit of 0.152).

South: TX-15 and 34.  2.010 (surplus of 0.010).

East: TX-1, 4, 5, 17, 27, 36, and 39  6.441 (deficit of 0.559)



San Antonio-Austin I-35 Corridor (Williamson, Travis, Hays, Comal, Bexar, and associated counties).

TX-20, 21, 23, 28*, 31, 35, and 37.  7.265 (surplus of 0.265).

TX-28* is the new configuration (Comal, Hays, and counties to the west).



DFW metro (Denton, Collin, Tarrant, Dallas)

TX-3, 6, 12, 24, 26, 30, 32, 33, and 38.  9.180 (surplus of 0.180)

This can be further divided into a surplus of 0.137 for Collin-Denton and 0,043 for Dallas-Tarrant.



Houston Metro (Montgomery, Harris, Fort Bend, Brazoria, and Galveston, and counties to the West).

TX=2. 7. 8. 9. 10, 14, 18, 22, and 29.   9.256 (surplus of 0.256).



Collectively, the three metro areas have a surplus of 0.701 which needs to be distributed to the 14 districts outside these metro areas, particularly in Central Texas (TX-27 and 39).

The surplus for the San Antonio-Austin area can be removed by shifting Edwards and Val Verde from TX-23 to TX-11, and Bandera, Gillespie, Kerr, and Real from TX-28 to TX-11.

This will result in TX-28 being underpopulated. It will make small incursions into Travis and Bexar counties (about 0.100 into each).

The population transferred to TX-11 will be added to TX-19 to bring it up to par and to simplify its boundary, and to be transferred to TX-25. TX-11 will become a Permian Basin-Concho Valley (San Angelo)-Hill Country district, as TX-25 is shifted north and west, to become a DFW suburban-exurban district.

The DFW surpluses require a district TX-4, TX-5, TX-13, or TX-25 to come into one of the four large counties. This will be used to permit TX-5 or TX-25 to move northward. In doing so they will be able to transfer population to TX-17 or TX-39.

Rockwall will be moved from TX-4 to TX-5, making TX-5 a clearly suburban/exurban district, and making TX-4 clearly out of the metro area. To compensate, Wood and Upshur will be moved to TX-4.

TX-14 (Brazoria and Galveston) has a surplus of 0.069. The two form a compact district. Splitting them apart would push substantially rearrange districts. Instead an area in Brazoria county will be split off and attached to TX-27.

TX-8 (Montgomery) has a deficit of 0.064. Walker will be added to TX-8 to bring the district closer to par.

These two changes will increase the Houston metro surplus to 0.269. Bastrop, Lee, Fayette, Colorado, and Austin will dropped from TX-10 and distributed between TX-27 and TX-39. This reduces TX-10 to almost completely within Harris County (only Waller will be outside).

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jimrtex
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« Reply #17 on: April 16, 2021, 05:32:29 PM »

We are now getting closer:



West: TX-11, 13, 16, 19, and 25.  5.105 (surplus of 0.105).
South: TX-15 and 34.  2.010 (surplus of 0.010).
East: TX-1, 4, 5, 17, 36, and 39  5.711 (deficit of 0.289)
Upper Gulf: TX-14 and 27. 2.002 (surplus of 0.002).



San Antonio-Austin   7.008 (surplus of 0.008)

The layout is now complete. Districts within Bexar and Travis will require extensive changes.

TX-31 will be coterminous with Williamson.

TX-35 and TX-37 wiil be wholly in Travis.

TX-28 will largely (80%) be comprised of Comal, Hays, Kendall, and Blanco. It will extend into Travis and Bexar for a small amount (10% each).

TX-20 and TX-21 will be wholly in Bexar. TX-23 will be mostly in Bexar (around 54%).



DFW metro (Denton, Collin, Tarrant, Dallas)

TX-3, 6, 12, 24, 26, 30, 32, 33, and 38.  9.180 (surplus of 0.180)

This can be further divided into a surplus of 0.137 for Collin-Denton and 0,043 for Dallas-Tarrant.



Houston Metro (Montgomery, Harris, Fort Bend, Walker, Waller)

TX=2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 18, 22, and 29.   7.985 (deficit of -0.015).

Brazoria and Galveston, and TX-14 removed from area. These areas are paired with TX-27 in a two district region. A small portion of Brazoria will be placed with TX-23.



Burnet will be shifted from TX-11 to TX-17. Coryell will be shifted from TX-25 to TX-17. This will enable four counties to be moved from TX-17 to TX-39.

Anderson and Cherokee will be moved from TX-5 to TX-39.

With a few more tweaks we will be ready to assign the DFW surplus to TX-5 and TX-25
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« Reply #18 on: April 18, 2021, 09:40:01 PM »
« Edited: April 22, 2021, 12:59:39 AM by jimrtex »

We are now ready to start dividing up metropolitan counties.



There are seven districts comprised of whole counties.

TX-1 1.003 East Texas (Tyler-Longview-Marshall-Nacogdoches-Lufkin)
TX-11 1.000 Permian Basin-Concho Valley-Hill Country (Midland-Odessa-San Angelo)
TX-16 0.999 El Paso-Trans Pecos
TX-17 0.996 Heart of Texas (Waco-Killeen-Temple)
TX-19 1.000 South Plains-West Central (Lubbock-Abilene)
TX-36 0.999 Southeast-Golden Triangle (Beaumont-Port Arthur-Orange-Eastern Houston Exurbs)
TX-39 1.005 Central-Brazos Valley-Trinity Valley (Bryan-College Station-Austin Suburbs-Corsicana-Palestine)

TX-15 and TX-34 could be made whole county districts by transferring Live Oak from TX-15 to TX-34, but this would make them complicated, with TX-15 looking like an inverted question mark (inclusion of Karnes in TX-15 is for reasons of population balance). Instead a small chop will be made into Hidalgo:

TX-15 0.744
TX-34 0.007

TX-15 0.998 Rio Grande Valley-Brush Country (McAllen-Edinburg-Mission-PSJA-Pleasanton)
TX-34 0.998 South Texas Coast (Corpus Christi-Harlngen-Brownsville)

About 3/4 of TX-15 will be in Hidalgo.
About 4/7 of TX-34 will be in the Coastal Bend, and 3/7 in the RGV.



There are seven districts in the San Antonio-Austin I-35 corridor: TX-20, 21, 23, 28, 31, 35, and 37. They have a collective population of 7.008 or 1.001 per district. We will divide Bexar and Travis counties.

TX-23 has 0.463 population in 9 counties outside Bexar, with about 1/2 of that in Webb. This results in 0.539 in Bexar.
TX-20 will be wholly in Bexar (1.001)
TX-21 will be wholly in Bexar (1.001)
TX-28 will have the remnant of Bexar (0.110)

TX-28 has 0.800 in four counties (Comal, Hays, Kendall, and Blanco) between San Antonio and Austin.

TX-28 will have 0.091 in Travis to bring its total to 1.001.
TX-35 will be wholly in Travis 1.001.
TX-37 will be wholly in Travis 1.001.
TX-31 will take the remnant of Travis (0.010)
TX-31 will include all of Williamson for 0.991, and a total of 1.001



There are nine districts in the four main DFW Counties of Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton.

TX-30 and 32 are wholly in Dallas.
TX-6 and 12 are wholly in Tarrant.
TX-24 and 33 straddle the Tarrant-Dallas line.
TX 3 is in Collin
TX 26 is in Denton
TX 38 straddles the Collin-Denton line.

Collectively, these 9 districts have a population equivalent to 9.180 districts, for a surplus of about 0.180.

Four whole county districts surround these:

TX-4 0.982
TX-5 0.892
TX-13 0.980
TX-4 0.998

Collectively these four districts have a population of 3.814 for a deficit of -0.186.

In total, all 13 districts have a population of 12.993 or an average of 0.999.

TX-13 will consist of 36 whole counties and 0.020 of Denton.
TX-26 will be entirely in Denton.
TX-38 will be 0.421 in Denton and 0.578 in Collin.
TX-3 will be entirely in Collin.
TX-4 will consist of 16 whole counties and 0.018 in Collin.
TX-5 will take the remainder of Collin 0.100.
TX-5 will consist of 5 whole counties, 0.100 in Collin and 0.005 in Dallas.
TX-30 will be entirely in Dallas.
TX-32 will be entirely in Dallas.
This leaves a remnant of 1.161 in Dallas. Conceivably, another whole district can be formed in Dallas. This would require shifting TX-33 into Dallas. It is more likely that TX-33 will be shifted towards Dallas, but not entirely. This is due to TX-5 being pushed out of Dallas.
TX-24 and TX-33 will straddle the Dallas-Tarrant line, 1.161 in Dallas, 0.838 in Tarrant.
TX-6 will be entirely in Tarrant.
TX-12 will be entirely in Tarrant.
TX-25 will consist of 25 whole counties, and 0.039 in Tarrant.



There are 9 districts in the Houston area:

TX-8 in Montgomery and Walker.
TX-7, 9, 10, 18, and 29 in Harris plus Waller.
TX-22 in Fort Bend
TX-14 in Galveston and Fort Bend.

Collectively these 9 districts have a population of 9.054. TX-27 is comprised of 17 counties with a population of 0.947. The surplus from the Houston area districts will cancel the deficit for TX-27. The 10 districts together have a population of 10.001 for an average of 1.000.

TX-8 has a surplus in Montgomery of 0.017 which will be added to TX-10.
TX-10 has 0.078 in Waller plus 0.017 in Montgomery, leaving 0.905 in Harris.
TX-22 is entirely in Fort Bend, leaving 0.235 for TX-9.
TX-9 has 0.235 in Fort Bend and 0.765 in Harris.
Harris with a population of 5.655, which is almost enough for 4 whole districts (1.000 each): TX-2, 7, 18, and 29, plus 0.765 for TX-9, and 0.905 for TX-10. This leaves a deficit of 0.017 which will be borrowed from either Galveston or Brazoria.
Brazoria + Galveston has a population of 1.069, which will be used 1.000 for TX-14, 0.017 for a Harris district, and 0.053 for TX-27.
TX-27 will be comprised of 17 whole counties and 0.053 from Brazoria.
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« Reply #19 on: April 23, 2021, 11:14:03 PM »

This shows the racial classification for Bexar County by census tract. It is based on total population from 2015-2019 ACS. I couldn't find CVAP at that granularity, but I am really just looking for trends.



White areas are unpopulated census tracts.

Pale blue are majority Anglo.
Dark brown are majority Hispanic.
Light brown are non-majority Anglo, with Hispanic as the largest non-Anglo group. Some of these areas might be plurality Anglo (e.g. 45% A, 40% H, 10% B, 5% Asian and other).

The one light green tract in east San Antonio has a Black largest minority. This is the historic black community in San Antonio. Improved economic status and desegregation have resulted in dispersal of the Black population. Retired military in San Antonio may not be inclined to live in the "Black area". With just 7% Black population, there may not be the base to support a Black middle class area. When the long-time Black state representative decided not to run for re-election, several candidates seeking to replace her had to establish a residence in the district to meet a one-year residency requirement, and were unable to run in a special election to replace her.

Generally, TX-23 and TX-20 will be placed in the "Hispanic area", while TX-21 and TX-28 will be placed in the "Anglo" as a first cut, the area inside I-410 except the area around Alamo Heights and Terrell Heights will be in the "Anglo area". The Hispanic area will extend outside I-410 south of Culebra Road and south of US 87 southeast of the city.
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« Reply #20 on: April 30, 2021, 03:17:51 PM »

This is the final plan for Bexar County.



TX-20 is cyan.
TX-21 is red.
TX-23 is blue, with the remainder of the district extending to Laredo.
TX-28 is gold, and included Comal, Hays, Kendall, Blanco and a bit of Travis.

TX-20 and the Bexar portion of TX-23 started out as the area inside I-410, except for the area dipping down to Alamo Heights and generally south of US-87 in the east and Culebra Road in the west outside I-410.

This area did not have enough population for the two districts, so it was extended northward to around I-35 as well further northwest. The area inside I-410 only had enough population for about 1/2 of the district so areas in the eastern and southern parts of the county were included in I-10.

This left the remainder of the area for TX-23. While TX-23 looks somewhat like a protrusion from Medina, it should be remembered that 54% of the district is in Bexar, and this area is relatively compact.

I had intended to place the small area of TX-28 (about 11% of total) along I-35, but chose the final area because it is outside the city limits of San Antonio.



I've decided to go ahead and finish a 39-district map. If I get ambitious, I may try to modify it to 38 districts.
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« Reply #21 on: May 03, 2021, 04:47:06 PM »

This shows the racial classification of Census Tracts in Travis County



Pale Blue - 60% or more Anglo.
Dark Brown: Less than 60% Anglo, Hispanic majority
Light Brown: Less than 60% Anglo, Hispanic largest minority group.
Light Green: Less than 60% Anglo, Black largest minority group
Light Yellow: Less than 60% Anglo, Asian largest minority group.

As in San Antonio, Blacks have largely been supplanted by Hispanics in east Austin. Travis is 49% Anglo, 34% Hispanic, 8% Black, 7% Asian.

The map confirms a strategy of dividing the county on an east-west basis, with TX-35 being the eastern district, and TX-37 being the western district. This would make TX-35 a minority opportunity district, at least after Lloyd Doggett retires.

TX-28 will take a small part of the county. Like in Bexar, I will try to avoid coming into the city of Austin. TX-31 will also take a tiny part of the county. This will likely be in either Round Rock or Cedar Park, both of which have toes into the county.
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« Reply #22 on: May 15, 2021, 05:54:32 PM »
« Edited: May 15, 2021, 06:36:38 PM by jimrtex »

These are the final maps for Travis County.



Two counties fully fit in Travis County. TX-35 is an existing district which is brought back wholly into the county. TX-37 is a new district created from all the extraneous districts with fingers into the county.

The boundary between TX-35 and TX-37 is along Mo-Pac north of the Colorado River, and I-35 south of the river. The original cut was on I-35, but that did not have enough voters. The district was moved west of the river to include majority Hispanic neighborhoods north of the Capital and also the UT campus. It is conceivably a minority opportunity district.

TX-31 includes one precinct on the northern edge of the county. It was intended that this area be within Round Rock, but the precincts and city limits do not conform.

TX-28 includes an area in the southwestern corner of the county (about 10% of the district). I wanted to avoid coming into the city of Austin. I might have been able to come in the southeastern corner of the county, but that would have required further adjustment of the TX-35 and TX-37 boundary.

The area in TX-28 extends up to Lake Travis including the Lakeway and Hudson Point area. The meandering northern border is following the Colorado River lake bed. The somewhat odd connection to Hays and Blanco counties is for population reasons. If I included more territory along the Hays-Travis line, I would not have been able to get to Lake Travis, leaving physically isolated areas.



This shows the final maps for the I-35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin.



TX-20 and TX-21 are entirely in Bexar. TX-23 takes a chunk out of the western part of the county. This area constitutes about 54% of the district.

TX-28 (which is a wholly new configuration) includes all of Hays, Comal, Kendall, and Blanco and extends into both Bexar and Travis counties. Roughly 10% of the district is in each of these two counties, with about 80% in the intermediate counties.

TX-35 and TX-37 (a new district) are wholly in Travis.

TX-31 includes all of Williamson, and a nibble of Travis.
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« Reply #23 on: May 17, 2021, 07:25:06 AM »

This is an initial layout for Collins and Denton counties.



Collin and Denton are entitled to three whole districts plus a little bit more. TX-3 is in Collin County, TX-26 in Denton, and TX-38 a new district in the northern part of the counties. TX-5 will extend into southeastern Collin from Rockwall, and TX-4 and TX-13 will take in small nibbles.

TX-38 was drawn as a circular district, so it was quite compact, but this left TX-3 and TX-26 irregular in shape, like a piece of toast with a large bite out of it.

There really is no point in doing an ethnic analysis of this area.

Density decreases as we go north, so we place one district in the north, and two districts in the south. We add the population of TX-5 to the southern two, and that of TX-4 and TX-13 to the northern one.

We slice the two counties along a constant latitude. North of this is TX-38. We chop off the ends at constitute longitude for TX-4 and TX-13.

The southern part is divided at constant longitude, TX-26 to the west, TX-3 to the east. An area at the far east end is TX-5.

This is just an initial layout, where we know that the electorates are of the correct size.



Most, but not all of McKinney and Frisco are in TX-38, so we will move the boundary south, leaving Allen and Plano as the northern boundary of TX-3. Frisco has a very large area in Denton, so that will be included in TX-39.

TX-3 falls just short of the Collin-Denton line, so it will be extended west, and include the Denton portions of Plano and Dallas. It might also include Carrollton which straddles the Collin-Denton line.

TX-26 will be pushed up to include the city of Denton. TX-5 may be adjusted to include all of the city of Wylie, which is peripheral to the push northward from Dallas to Plano, Frisco, Prosper, and Celina.
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« Reply #24 on: May 21, 2021, 12:11:03 AM »

Here is the final map for Collin-Denton



TX-5 crosses the county line from Rockwall and head west to include Wylie. You could go north along the east shore of Lavon Lake, but would have to wander around to get enough people (roughly 1/10 of a district). Wylie is somewhat peripheral to the northward expansion from Dallas.

Frisco and McKinney naturally fit into a northern TX-38 district, while Plano, Allen, Dallas, and Richardson are in a southern TX-3 district. Plano and Dallas dip a toe into Denton County which is included in TX-3. Adding enough to complete the district would split Carrollton, so we add in rural areas in the eastern part of the county.

Frisco has a large share of its population in Denton County, so we include that in TX-38, and continue to the eastern shore of Lewisville Lake, including The Colony and Little Elm.

This puts Carrollton, Lewsiville, and the city of Denton in TX-26, along with suburbs north of Fort Worth.

TX-13 takes the area around Sanger, and TX-4 takes the area around Anna. These were chosen based on population, remoteness, and community of interest.
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