Now somethng to keep me occupied until kingdom come...

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I was thinking a few days ago how different states would be if they were ran like counties, with 5-member county commissions with no real leader. Of course this then go me to thinking how certain states would have those commissions drawn, and now I can't help myself. So here's my attempt to draw some districts for each state.

I'm keeping in mind more of a district for governor than a congressional district here, hence they might different form congressional breakdowns (although some of the 5-district states are already drawn quite nicely). Here are the rules:

1-To simplify things and be nice on myself, I'll do this Iowa style. No breaking counties unless necessary, ie county has more than one district's population, or it would be too unproportional. Also no district will have more than one county only partially in it except for extreme circumstances.

2-No gerrymandering. Though it's very hard for me to avoid this altogether

3-Keep the districts as compact as possible.

And other rules I'll use for various states.

If anyone can improve on these, go ahead.

Here's South Dakota:

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

North Dakota:



Yes, I know the county sticking out in the red district looks bad, but it's the best I could do. That is Stark County, which has about 20,000 people in it, which is fairly large by ND standards, since Burleigh (Bismarck) and Morton (Mandan, Bismarck's sister city) counties together have almost 100k population, this leaves almost no more room once that county is attached on. The only other alternative would be to draw a district through those rural counties in the southwest that have approx. 10 people apeice in them and up the western border of the state, which would make no sense for one (I doubt the 20 or so people who live on the Montana border would want to be dominated by Bismarck-Mandan), and would break my rule which is that a person driving through the state on I-94 wouldn't enter each district more than once (they'd enter the Bismarck-Mandan district twice, once at the border, and once after Stark County)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Wyoming:



Lack of counties required that one be split here. Basically, Green River and Rock Springs are in separate districts.

[Cubby]

Don't stop now! 

More maps!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'll try some later this morning after I get some errands involving my graduation done. I'd like to try Minnesota but for various reasons it'd be somewhat complicated. Maybe tonight.

[Padfoot]

what is the easiest way to make state maps for posting purposes?  Is there someway to do it through the atlas or do you use an image editor?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

what is the easiest way to make state maps for posting purposes?  Is there someway to do it through the atlas or do you use an image editor?

For maps of actual elections, there is a way to do through the atlas.

For ones I just make up, I use paint.