US with Canadian Ridings

[jimrtex]

What, no names? That's half the fun!

^^^

And keep in mind the difference between Canadian and British naming conventions.

And Australian

[jimrtex]

Maine, 12 ridings. Results are from 2008.

1-Blue: Aroostook-Washington: 93.9% White, 52.4% Obama
2-Green: Bangor: 94.1% White, 53.3% Obama
3-Dark Magenta: Somerset-North Penobscot-Piscataquis: 96.5% White, 49.1% Obama

I would name this Somerset-Penobscot-Piscataquis, since Bangor is treated as being separate from the remainder of the county, even though it is the bulk of the county population.

Are there Canadian conventions for ordering of names?   Alphabetical, geographic, or population?

4-Red: Oxford-Franklin: 96.3% White, 57.1% Obama
5-Gold: Hancock-Waldo: 96.4% White, 56.4% Obama
6-Teal: Knox-Sagadahoc-Lincoln: 96.3% White, 57.3% Obama
7-Dark Gray: Augusta-Kennebec: 95.2% White, 57.2% Obama

Waterville is the more populous urban area in the county.  I'd either add it or drop Augusta.

8-Slate Blue: Lewiston-Auburn-Androscoggin: 91.9% White, 56.5% Obama

Is the Androscoggin necessary, given the dominance of Lewiston and Auburn?

9-Cyan: South York: 95.4% White, 62.3% Obama

York South

10-Deep Pink: North York-Gorham: 95.9% White, 55.0% Obama

York North-Gorham

11-Chartreuse: Windham-Falmouth-East Cumberland: 94.4% White, 60.4% Obama

Is Brunswick a better name for Cumberland East, since it is the only area that is really a distinct population center from Portland.

12-Cornflower Blue: Portland-Scarborough-Cape Elizabeth: 87.5% White, 71.1% Obama

Given the size difference, would this be Portland?

Can a 3rd district be placed in Cumberland County if it meant a 13th district for Maine?

[jimrtex]

Maine, 12 ridings. Results are from 2008.

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I need to check before answering that.

The number of districts is fixed by the Canadian Constitution, which establishes an electoral quota.  The number of districts for a province is: ceil(population/quota), but there a bunch of hold harmless provisions that apply to all provinces except Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia.

Each province has its own federal boundary commission, so the Maine commission would be limited to 12 districts, even if 13 fit better.

Districts must have reasonably equal population, and must be within 25%, except in extraordinary conditions of the provincial quota (eg Maine Population/12)

The Ontario commission noted that Northern Ontario was entitled to 8 districts, but had 10.  They did not invoke the extraordinary conditions clause, other than Kenora which has about 50% of the ideal.  So this meant that the other 9 had to be somewhat balanced to stay above 75%.

Canadian Redistribution

The Canadian Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution guarantees each citizen effective representation, rather than equality of representation, so factors like COI, historical districts, are also considered along with population.

In the case of Maine, other than Penobscot, the larger counties can be apportioned whole districts:

Cumberland (3) -15.2%
York (2) -11.0%
Penobscot+Somerset+Piscataquis (2) + 1.1%
Kennebec (1) +10.3%
Androscoggin (1) -2.7%

These are reasonable deviations, but there are four other groupings, for a total of 13 districts.

Maybe put Sagadahoc with Cumberland, which gives a more Brunswick-centric district.

Then Lincoln-Knox-Waldo, Hancock-Washington, Aroostook-Penobscot North, Somerset East-Piscataquis-Penobscot West, and Oxford-Franklin-Somerset East.

7 coastal and 5 interior, 8 urban and 4 rural.

[jimrtex]

What are those conventions? I have and idea but I would like to be able to do this without making any foolish mistakes.

There are 56 state and territorial commissions - though they are established by the federal government.  Virgin Islands, Northern Marianas, and American Samoa have only one district each (Guam has 2 and Puerto Rico 30+).

There don't appear to be any requirements for names in the law, other than each commission is to propose the names.

[jimrtex]

Oh I realize the Jackson whites are packed into a few northeastern districts, but those are the richest, most powerful people in the entire state.  They will NOT be put into a majority black district. Period. Ever.  Same goes for Madison.

But what would protect them if ridings were drawn by a national commission? If congressional redistricting reform were really to work it might require just that.

Canada uses individual commissions in each province.