DRA stuff

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

2 (green) is now 57.5 Obama, 40.9 McCain; 45.7 Dem, 54.3 Rep (Ave: 52.1)
1 (black) is now 49.5 Obama, 48.7 McCain; 45 Dem, 55 Rep (Ave: 47.7)
4 (red) is now 53.2 Obama, 45.2 McCain; 45.5 Dem, 54.5 Rep (Ave: 49.8)
3 (purple) is now 39.5 Obama, 58.8 McCain; 30 Dem, 70 Rep (Ave: 35.1)
8 (slate blue) is now 57.4 Obama, 40.9 McCain; 48.2 Dem, 51.2 Rep (Ave: 53.3)

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

NC fair map

1 (gray): 49.9 White, 41.5 Black; 62.3 Obama, 37.1 McCain; 64.6 Dem, 35.4 Rep. (The arm into Durham was done to get it below 50% White)
2 (red): 58.5 White, 31.4 Black; 49.8 Obama, 49.6 McCain; 52.3 Dem, 47.7 Rep. This district was designed to match the statewide Obama % vote, serving as the median district. It doubles as a possible black opportunity seat.
3 (green): 77.4 White, 14.2 Black; 42.6 Obama, 56.5 McCain; 44.3 Dem, 55.7 Rep. Coastal NC district, splits no counties, beautiful shape and wonderful CoI.
4 (teal): 65.4 White, 19 Black; 57.8 Obama, 41.2 McCain; 53.8 Dem, 46.2 Rep.
5 (sky blue): 65.3 White, 22.9 Black; 52.5 Obama, 46.7 McCain; 49.9 Dem, 50.1 Rep. This seat is a true swing district.
6 (dark magenta): 64.7 White, 24.4 Black; 59.6 Obama, 39.4 McCain; 58.5 Dem, 41.5 Rep.
7 (black): 48.2 White, 32.7 Black, 8.9 Native; 56.2 Obama, 43.2 McCain; 60.1 Dem, 39.9 Rep.
8 (gold): 75.1 White, 13.5 Black; 39.4 Obama, 59.6 McCain; 40.7 Dem, 59.3 Rep.
9 (pink): 77.2 White, 12.5 Black; 38.4 Obama, 60.7 McCain; 37 Dem, 63 Rep. Eastern Charlotte McMansion surburbs.
10 (chartreuse): 80.7 White, 11.5 Black, 37.6 Obama, 61.5 McCain; 37.9 Dem, 62.1 Rep. Western Charlotte McMansion surburbs.
11 (orange): 45.8 Obama, 52.8 McCain; 47.3 Dem, 52.7 Rep. The old 11th restored in all its glory.
12 (cyan): 47.6 White, 34.1 Black, 11.8 Hispanic; 67 Obama, 32.3 McCain; 61.6 Dem, 38.4 Rep.
13 (sienna): 34.7 Obama, 63.8 McCain; 37.3 Dem, 62.7 Rep. Winston Salem suburbs along with NC wine country.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

MO fair map

1 (gray): 51.2 White, 42.2 Black; 72.6 Obama, 26.6 McCain; 74.9 Dem, 25.1 Rep.
2 (red): 56.2 Obama, 42.6 McCain; 60.4 Dem, 39.6 Rep.
3 (purple): 39.1 Obama, 59.6 McCain; 44.3 Dem, 55.7 Rep.
4 (green): 59.1 Obama, 39.8 McCain; 62.4 Dem, 37.6 Rep.
5 (black): 49.2 Obama, 49.3 McCain; 51.9 Dem, 49.1 Rep.
6 (gold): 42.3 Obama, 56.3 McCain; 44.5 Dem, 55.5 Rep.
7 (teal): 35.3 Obama, 63.3 McCain; 36.7 Dem, 63.3 Rep.
8 (white): 34.8 Obama, 63.6 McCain; 39.5 Dem, 60.5 Rep.

[muon2]

That is a fine boundary for CD 1. Excellent.

The chop in Kent county is extremely erose, however. It just looks like a gerrymander by protruding south the way it does. The boundary between CDs 2 and 3 is an 18. If you put Ottawa in CD 2 and Grand Rapids in CD you can reduce the erosity of their boundary to 12 and get rid of the chop in Wyoming.

Here's a map of the connections within Kent. Both yellow and blue connections apply between subunits in the county, but only yellow links are state highways that count between counties.



Also I note that Saginaw is a macroshop and you have a chopped township. If you move Gratiot to CD 8 and include more of Saginaw in CD 4 the macrochop is reduced to a simple chop and the erosity is lowered.

I looked at this this morning and i realized that your CD 2 could be made of whole counties by dropping all of Kent and adding Ottawa and Allegan. The extra population for CD 6 can come from a chop of Barry instead of Allegan. Happy 4th.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I don't want to tamper with the lines too much in Kent, or add Ottawa and Allengan, b/c the 2nd is designed to be a Swing district. (a solid D seat solely in such a region as Western Michigan seems impossible to me).  Though if that wasn't a concern I would redraw the lines.
Minor changes in Kent are fine, though. As long as all of Grand Rapids is in the seat, it won't be solid R. Perhaps add Grand Rapids Township and take out the rest of Wyoming?

[muon2]

I don't want to tamper with the lines too much in Kent, or add Ottawa and Allengan, b/c the 2nd is designed to be a Swing district. (a solid D seat solely in such a region as Western Michigan seems impossible to me).  Though if that wasn't a concern I would redraw the lines.
Minor changes in Kent are fine, though. As long as all of Grand Rapids is in the seat, it won't be solid R. Perhaps add Grand Rapids Township and take out the rest of Wyoming?

The scoring rules are designed to punish political gerrymanders that have poor shapes. If you are going to gerrymander CD 2 I'd recommend putting Grandville, Wyoming and Kentwood in CD 3 and everything to their north in CD 2. That puts CD 2 at D+2 (55.2% Obama 08). The erosity along the border is 10, which is much better than the 18 in your most recent version. However the whole county version I suggested only has an erosity of 4.

You can also reduce erosity by combining the two fragments in the CD 6 chop of Allegan. If you don't like the combination in Allegan, a chop in Barry would score the same.

What're your thoughts about Saginaw? That large chop is costly in scoring, but shifting Gratiot to reduce the Saginaw chop helps a lot.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I don't want to tamper with the lines too much in Kent, or add Ottawa and Allengan, b/c the 2nd is designed to be a Swing district. (a solid D seat solely in such a region as Western Michigan seems impossible to me).  Though if that wasn't a concern I would redraw the lines.
Minor changes in Kent are fine, though. As long as all of Grand Rapids is in the seat, it won't be solid R. Perhaps add Grand Rapids Township and take out the rest of Wyoming?

The scoring rules are designed to punish political gerrymanders that have poor shapes. If you are going to gerrymander CD 2 I'd recommend putting Grandville, Wyoming and Kentwood in CD 3 and everything to their north in CD 2. That puts CD 2 at D+2 (55.2% Obama 08). The erosity along the border is 10, which is much better than the 18 in your most recent version. However the whole county version I suggested only has an erosity of 4.

You can also reduce erosity by combining the two fragments in the CD 6 chop of Allegan. If you don't like the combination in Allegan, a chop in Barry would score the same.

What're your thoughts about Saginaw? That large chop is costly in scoring, but shifting Gratiot to reduce the Saginaw chop helps a lot.

Does "everything north" mean all the county north or just areas to the west of Courtland Township?
Also I did play around with Saginaw County quite a bit, I wanted to avoid splitting Saginaw city itself. It took some time accomplishing that.
I hadn't considered shifting Gratiot. That definitely would have to be something I would have to consider.
What would the Saginaw chop look like if I did that?

[muon2]

I don't want to tamper with the lines too much in Kent, or add Ottawa and Allengan, b/c the 2nd is designed to be a Swing district. (a solid D seat solely in such a region as Western Michigan seems impossible to me).  Though if that wasn't a concern I would redraw the lines.
Minor changes in Kent are fine, though. As long as all of Grand Rapids is in the seat, it won't be solid R. Perhaps add Grand Rapids Township and take out the rest of Wyoming?

The scoring rules are designed to punish political gerrymanders that have poor shapes. If you are going to gerrymander CD 2 I'd recommend putting Grandville, Wyoming and Kentwood in CD 3 and everything to their north in CD 2. That puts CD 2 at D+2 (55.2% Obama 08). The erosity along the border is 10, which is much better than the 18 in your most recent version. However the whole county version I suggested only has an erosity of 4.

You can also reduce erosity by combining the two fragments in the CD 6 chop of Allegan. If you don't like the combination in Allegan, a chop in Barry would score the same.

What're your thoughts about Saginaw? That large chop is costly in scoring, but shifting Gratiot to reduce the Saginaw chop helps a lot.

Does "everything north" mean all the county north or just areas to the west of Courtland Township?
Also I did play around with Saginaw County quite a bit, I wanted to avoid splitting Saginaw city itself. It took some time accomplishing that.
I hadn't considered shifting Gratiot. That definitely would have to be something I would have to consider.
What would the Saginaw chop look like if I did that?

I used a line across Kent county that goes through Lowell.

There are a couple ways of drawing the Saginaw chop with no chopped townships. To minimize erosity it probably helps to wrap the NW corner of Genesee that is in CD 8 with CD 8 in Saginaw.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

23 full counties.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Blue has 4 full counties, and is D+5
White is D+17

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

VA non-partisan map, no VRA

1 (gold): 63.8 W, 27.7 B; 52.5 O, 46.7 M; 48.3 D, 51.7 R.
2 (gray): 60.4 W, 26.2 B; 55.9 O, 43.6 M; 51.4 D, 48.6 R.
3 (slate blue): 55.7 W, 37.6 B; 54.7 O, 44.6 M; 50.7 D, 49.3 R.
4 (teal): 58.8 W, 30 B; 57.7 O, 41.6 M; 51.8 D, 48.2 R.
5 (cyan): 71.9 W, 22.1 B; 47.7 O, 51.4 M; 45.2 D, 54.8 R.
6 (deep pink): 83.7 W, 10.5 B; 41.8 O, 57.1 M; 40.9 D, 59.1 R.
7 (red): 80.7 W, 10.1 B; 44.6 O, 54.4 M; 41.1 D, 58.9 R.
8 (blue): 55.3 W, 15.1 H, 14.1 A, 13 B; 62.4 O, 36.9 M; 57.7 D, 42.3 R.
9 (chartreuse): 40 O, 58.6 M; 43.3 D, 56.7 R.
10 (dark magenta): 54.9 W, 17 H, 14.6 B, 11.1 A; 56.5 O, 42.8 M; 49.4 D, 50.6 R.
11 (green): 61.5 W, 16.1 A, 13.7 H; 64.3 O, 34.9 M; 60 D, 40 R.
Only 4 counties that could fit in one congressional district are split.

[muon2]

This gets to the more interesting question mathematically. What is the maximum number of whole county CDs in any given state, assuming that the rest of the state can be divided into CDs as well and the CDs are within 0.5% of the quota? If there is more than one arrangement the one with the smallest difference in population between two CDs (the range) is best.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Illinois Republican gerrymander

1 (gray): 57 B, 29 W, 12.1 H; 84.6 O, 14.8 M.
2 (cyan): 52.4 B, 34.2 W; 90.7 O, 8.6 M.
3 (chartreuse): 52.7 O, 46 M.
4 (deep pink): 43.7 H, 26.1 W, 22.3B; 83.1 O, 16 M.
5 (slate blue): 60.1 W, 18.5 H, 10.5 A; 79.1 O, 19.5 M.
6 (lime): 55.1 O, 43.6 M.
7 (olive): 44.7 H, 27.6 W, 24.4 B; 85.2 O, 13.9 M.
8 (dark salmon): 73.6 W, 12.3 A, 11 H; 60.3 O, 38.6 M.
9 (dark orange): 69.4 W, 16.7 H; 59.5 O, 39.4 M.
10 (cornflower blue): 71.1 W, 14.3 H; 55.9 O, 42.7 M.
11 (blue): 83.1 W, 12.7 B; 50 O, 48.3 M.
12 (dark magenta): 50.1 O, 48.2 M.
13 (dark slate blue): 63.6 W, 23.1 W; 56.4 O, 42.4 M.
14 (red): 50.4 O, 47.8 M.
15 (teal): 76.6 W, 12.2 H; 54.3 O, 44.3 M.
16 (green): 50.9 O, 47.5 M.
17 (gold): 50.1 O, 48.3 M.
18 (white): 54.5 O, 43.8 M.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Non-partisan map of KS

1 (blue): This seat is the largest one in the state, and encompasses the vast majority of the state's population outside of the metro areas of Topeka, Kansas City, and Wichita. 29.7 O, 68.4 M; R+23.
2 (green): This district includes most of the outer reaches of the Kansas City metro not in the 3rd. It also includes all of the Topeka MSA as well as the rural Southeastern part of the state. 45.6 O, 52.5 M; R+7.
3 (purple): This seat is little altered from the current version. It barely changes at all, and thus retains its heavily urban territory. 48.7 O, 50 M; R+4.
4 (red): This seat centers on the five counties of the Wichita CSA (which it has the entirety of), and grabs part of Reno County, including all of Hutchinson. 40.6 O, 57.5 M; R+14.

[muon2]

Non-partisan map of KS

1 (blue): This seat is the largest one in the state, and encompasses the vast majority of the state's population outside of the metro areas of Topeka, Kansas City, and Wichita. 29.7 O, 68.4 M; R+23.
2 (green): This district includes most of the outer reaches of the Kansas City metro not in the 3rd. It also includes all of the Topeka MSA as well as the rural Southeastern part of the state. 45.6 O, 52.5 M; R+7.
3 (purple): This seat is little altered from the current version. It barely changes at all, and thus retains its heavily urban territory. 48.7 O, 50 M; R+4.
4 (red): This seat centers on the five counties of the Wichita CSA (which it has the entirety of), and grabs part of Reno County, including all of Hutchinson. 40.6 O, 57.5 M; R+14.

Why would a non-partisan map chop Reno county, if populations don't have to be exact? There are plenty of combinations of other counties that don't chop it.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Non-partisan map of KS

1 (blue): This seat is the largest one in the state, and encompasses the vast majority of the state's population outside of the metro areas of Topeka, Kansas City, and Wichita. 29.7 O, 68.4 M; R+23.
2 (green): This district includes most of the outer reaches of the Kansas City metro not in the 3rd. It also includes all of the Topeka MSA as well as the rural Southeastern part of the state. 45.6 O, 52.5 M; R+7.
3 (purple): This seat is little altered from the current version. It barely changes at all, and thus retains its heavily urban territory. 48.7 O, 50 M; R+4.
4 (red): This seat centers on the five counties of the Wichita CSA (which it has the entirety of), and grabs part of Reno County, including all of Hutchinson. 40.6 O, 57.5 M; R+14.

Why would a non-partisan map chop Reno county, if populations don't have to be exact? There are plenty of combinations of other counties that don't chop it.

I liked the square ish shape that resulted. That was part of it. The 4th was being designed to be a more urban district (within reason) and once I drew in all of Metro Wichita I had a certain number of people left. I reached quota in a way that furthered my goals, I think.
What whole county district combinations regarding the 4th do you have in mind?

[muon2]

Non-partisan map of KS

1 (blue): This seat is the largest one in the state, and encompasses the vast majority of the state's population outside of the metro areas of Topeka, Kansas City, and Wichita. 29.7 O, 68.4 M; R+23.
2 (green): This district includes most of the outer reaches of the Kansas City metro not in the 3rd. It also includes all of the Topeka MSA as well as the rural Southeastern part of the state. 45.6 O, 52.5 M; R+7.
3 (purple): This seat is little altered from the current version. It barely changes at all, and thus retains its heavily urban territory. 48.7 O, 50 M; R+4.
4 (red): This seat centers on the five counties of the Wichita CSA (which it has the entirety of), and grabs part of Reno County, including all of Hutchinson. 40.6 O, 57.5 M; R+14.

Why would a non-partisan map chop Reno county, if populations don't have to be exact? There are plenty of combinations of other counties that don't chop it.

I liked the square ish shape that resulted. That was part of it. The 4th was being designed to be a more urban district (within reason) and once I drew in all of Metro Wichita I had a certain number of people left. I reached quota in a way that furthered my goals, I think.
What whole county district combinations regarding the 4th do you have in mind?

This keeps the 5-county Wichita area intact, eliminates the Reno chop, and reduces the overall erosity.



It does cut Wabaunsee out of CD 2, but that can be fixed at the cost of some erosity, but with better population equality.



In some detailed analysis a few of us did here a few years ago, we found the CSAs weren't the best measure of what made up a metro area for the purposes of keeping it together in a district. In general CSAs included too many rural counties, but those counties had enough commuters to count for Census purposes. We developed, and jimrtex codified, a definition for urban county clusters (UCCs) that are a sticky thread on the board. When we score plans one generally wants to cover a UCC with as few CDs as possible, and for large UCCs, pack as many CDs in them as possible.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

What about this?

[muon2]

What about this?

This looks significantly better. IN order to score it I wanted to make sure I could duplicate it. I get the following for the deviations: -383, +861, +2867, -3344. You probably have some tiny precincts in the wrong district. You can use the Find Unassigned Dists button to get rid of the remaining 2 population in unassigned. You can use the Check Contiguity button for each of the CDs to see if you left a bit of one district inside another. For pieces right at the border, I would increase the color opacity and perhaps change colors, to make it easier to spot little bits overlapping a county line.

Getting the populations right is used to get the inequality part of the score. The range is the difference from the largest to smallest population, and it is then put into this table to get a score.

The INEQUALITY score for a plan is found by taking the range for a plan and comparing it to the table below.

Range	Inequality
0-1	0
2-10	1
11-100	2
101-400	3
401-900	4
901-1600	5
1601-2400	6
2401-3200	7
3201-4000	8
4001-4800	9
4801-5600	10
5601-6300	11
6301-7000	12
7001-7700	13

The erosity is determined by counting the number of links between counties that are cut by boundaries between CDs. This is the connection map for KS:



For example, in your plan I count these links cut on boundaries coming to a total of 30:

CD 1 - CD 2: 9
CD 1 - CD 4: 11
CD 2 - CD 4: 6
CD 2 - CD 3: 4
Note that the path from Franklin to Miami counties, goes between their county seats on KS-68. That crosses between CD-2 and CD-3, but if Richland township is switched from CD 3 to CD 2 that removes that cut link. The population stays within the limits by my count.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Indiana Democratic gerrymander

1 (blue): D+6
2 (green): D+2
3 (dark magenta): R+10
4 (red): D+3
5 (gold): R+10
6 (teal): R+11
7 (dark gray): D+3
8 (slate blue): R+1
9 (cyan): R+9

[muon2]

Two other thoughts about KS.

Here's a neutral map I drew in 2014 with low erosity (27) and a range of just over 1700 (inequality 6).



I also found for your Dem gerry that if you take the whole counties of Wyandotte, Leavenworth, Atchison, Jefferson, Douglas, Franklin, Shawnee, Pottawatomi, Riley, and Geary the population is within 0.5% and the 2008 vote was Obama 53.2%, McCain 45.0% which is better than his Obama's national result. You can build a plan of whole counties for the remaining three CDs, too.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

PA D gerrymander

1 (blue): 37.7 W, 42.9 B; D+32
2 (green): 37.4 W, 42.7 B; D+28
3 (purple): R+1
4 (red): R+14
5 (aquamarine): R+14
6 (teal): D+7
7 (gray): D+4
8 (slate blue): D+1
9 (cyan): R+20
10 (deep pink): R+12
11 (chartreuse): EVEN
12 (cornflower blue): EVEN
13 (dark salmon): D+7
14 (olive): D+2
15 (dark orange): D+4
16 (black): R+12
17 (dark slate blue): D+3
18 (yellow): D+3