US with Canadian Ridings

[traininthedistance]

Columbus area.  Delaware (to the north) and Licking (to the northwest) share three districts between them.  Franklin County then has ten districts.  I drew them with the aim of not splitting any non-Columbus townships, minimizing weird exclaves (can't eliminate them all though), and making two black-majority districts (Franklin is over 20% black, and the AA population is reasonably compact).

District 42: DELAWARE-ORANGE.  O 41.4%, D 39.4%.  The all-Delaware district.  Safe R.
District 43: GENOA-PATASKALA.  O 37.2%, D 37.4%.  The Delaware-Licking district.  Safe R.
District 44: NEWARK.  O 43.0%, D 47.1%.  The all-Licking district.  Safe R.
District 45: WESTERVILLE-COLUMBUS NORTHEAST.  O 57.1%, D 53.1%.  68W/23B.  Lean D.
District 46: GAHANNA-REYNOLDSBURG-NEW ALBANY.  O 52.5%, D 49.7%.  75W/17B. Tries to mostly stay out of Columbus proper, which is of course a fool's errand here.  Tossup.
District 47: WORTHINGTON-COLUMBUS NORTHWEST.  O 54.5%, D 52.0%.  Lean D.
District 48: WHITEHALL-COLUMBUS LINDEN-AIRPORT.  O 81.0%, D 77.0%.  40W/51B.  The "near northeast".  Black-majority, Safe D.
District 49: UPPER ARLINGTON- COLUMBUS UNIVERSITY-CLINTONVILLE.  O 61.2%, D 60.2%.  The "near northwest".  The hook over 48 is trying to get all those islands of Clinton Twp. in one district. Safe D.
District 50: BEXLEY-COLUMBUS EAST.  O 82.6%, D 78.1%.  38B/54B.  The "near southeast".  Black-majority, Safe D.
District 51: COLUMBUS HILLTOP-SOUTHWEST-GRANDVIEW.  O 59.9%, D 61.4%.  76W/14B.  Safe D.
District 52: DUBLIN-HILLIARD.  O 46.0%, D 43.9%.  Erm… Safe R, though perhaps not forever.
District 53: GROVE CITY-COLUMBUS WESTLAND.  O 44.9%, D 47.4%  The southwest.  Eh, Lean R though maybe safe would be better.
District 54: COLUMBUS CENTER-FAR SOUTH.  O 61.9%, D 62.7%.  76W/17B.  The border between this district and 50 creates an odd shape here for this downtown-cum-far southeastern district, it was done this way to get the second black district.  Safe D. 



South of Columbus and the Ohio River area, some outer Columbus metro but mostly rural and small-town.  Fairfield County is split on account of being too large, all the other districts here are whole county.
District 55: PICKAWAY-MADISON.  O 37.2%, D 42.6%.   Also includes a small portion of Fairfield, but no large towns there worth putting in the district name.  Both 55 and 56 are quite overpopulated.  Safe R.
District 56: LANCASTER-PICKERINGTON.  O 41.7%, D 43.8%.  The all-Fairfield district.  And the colors roll over for the last district in the Columbus MSA proper.  Safe R.
District 57: ROSS-FAYETTE.  O 43.3%, D 50.5%.  Chillicothe and Washington Court House, both micropolitan areas appended to the Columbus CSA.  Lean R.
District 58: HIGHLAND-JACKSON-PIKE.  O 40.0%, D 49.2%  Towns include Hillsboro, Waverly, Jackson.  Incredibly, this is the one and only district in Ohio to not have any metro or micropolitan areas in it (of course, micro areas are often quite rural in character).  The D average is close… but eh, Safe R anyway; the D average in this region is goosed on account of Ted Strickland being from the area.
District 59: SCIOTO-ADAMS. O 43.4%, D 55.7%.  The Portsmouth district.  Lean R, which is what I'm going to give most of these "bad Obama, good Dem average" districts.
District 60: LAWRENCE-GALLIA-MEIGS.  O 39.6%, D 56.9%.  Ironton is the largest town in this Ohio River district. but it's out of view to the south.  Lean R.
District 61: ATHENS-HOCKING-VINTON.  O 59.2%, D 66.8%.  Safe D.
District 62: WASHINGTON-MORGAN-NOBLE-MONROE.  O 43.3%, D 58.7%.  Marietta is the largest town.  Lean R.
District 63: MUSKINGUM-PERRY.  O 45.9%, D 52.8%.  The Zanesville district.  Lean R.



Moving north up the Ohio River/Appalachians, plus Stark (Canton) and Wayne (Wooster).  Stark has three whole districts and one it splits with Tuscarawas, everything else is whole county.
District 64: BELMONT-GUERNSEY.  O 48.1%,  D 62.9%.  Cambridge, St. Clairsville, Wheeling WV suburbs.  Erm… Lean D; local Dems should do better than Obama here.
District 65: JEFFERSON-CARROLL-HARRISON.  O 48.1%, D 62.9%.  The Steubenville district.  Yep, exact same partisan numbers as the last one.  Lean D.
District 66: HOLMES-COSHOCTON-NEWCOMERSTOWN.  O 40.2%, D 45.5%. Coshocton, Amish Country, the south and west of Tuscarawas.  Safe R.
District 67: COLUMBIANA.  O 45.1%, D 61.9%.  East Liverpool, Salem.  Tossup.
District 68: NEW PHILADELPHIA-CANAL FULTON-BREWSTER.  O 49.5%, D 55.9%.  The Tuscarawas-Stark district.  "Stark South and West" would be better than trying to list towns all of which are not too large.  The disconnected precinct of 68 next to Alliance is a DRA bug, I assume.  Tossup.
District 69: CANTON.  O 61.8%, D 61.3%.  81W/15B.  Plain Township, north of Canton, is split between this and 71.  It was the least bad option.  Brown, just like a football, fitting given the legacy of the Canton Bulldogs and its status as the birthplace of the NFL.  Safe D.
District 70: MASSILLON.  O 50.7%, D 52.5%.  Orange in honor of the Masillon Tigers, of course.  (No, actually, like the Canton district that was just a coincidence.  But one I like quite much.) Tossup.
District 71: ALLIANCE-LOUISVILLE.  O 45.7%, D 49.5%.  Northeast Stark.  Lean R.
District 72: WAYNE.  O 41.6%, D 44.1%.  The Wooster district. Safe R.



The northeast corner of the state: Mahoning Valley, Ashtabula, and eastern Cleveland burbs.  Mahoning, Trumbull, and Lake all neatly divide into two (though Mahoning is overpopulated and Trumbull underpopulated.)  Then there's a three-district chain between Ashtabula, Geauga, and Portage.
District 73: AUSTINTOWN-CANFIELD.  O 54.1%, D 69.8%.  Aka the outer Mahoning district.  Safe D.
District 74: YOUNGSTOWN-BOARDMAN.  O 71.7%, D 80.6%.  65W/26B. Safe D.
District 75: NILES-GIRARD.  O 59.4%, D 73.3%.  Eastern Trumbull.  Safe D.
District 76: WARREN.  O 60.8%, D 73.0%.  86W/12B.  Western Trumbull.  Safe D.
District 77: ASHTABULA.  O 53.8%, D 55.4%.  A little bit of Geauga as well, since Ashtabula is just a bit too small to be one district.  Lean D.
District 78: PAINESVILLE-MADISON.  O 48.3%, D 48.5%.  Lake County, east and south.  Lean R.
District 79: MENTOR-WILLOUGHBY. O 50.8%, D 52.2%.  The more urban bits of Lake.  Tossup.
District 80: GEAUGA-STREETSBORO.  O 43.8%, D 46.9%.  Not technically all of Geauga, but most of it and there aren't any notable placenames in that exurban/farms mix of a county.  Also a little bit of northwest Portage that doesn't fit in 81.  Safe R.
District 81: KENT-RAVENNA.  O 55.9%, D 66.0%.  The bulk of Portage.  Safe D.

This'll need a Part III.

[traininthedistance]

Last part.


Cuyahoga County.  Twelve districts, all underpopulated.  Eleven would fit better, but the rest of the state is one short, and trying to squeeze an eleventh district into Franklin (the other realistic option) would be even worse.  Cleveland is split out the wazoo, and Shaker Heights is split as well; doing this allows for five black-majority districts.

District 82: SOLON-MAPLE HEIGHTS.  O 79.7%, D 79.2%.  42W/52B.  The southeast corner of Cuyahoga.  Splits Shaker Heights with 84; the one black-majority district that doesn't need to dip into Cleveland.  Safe D.
District 83: EUCLID-CLEVELAND COLLINWOOD.  O 82.9%, D 83.1%.  36W/60B.  The northwest corner of Cuyahoga.  Black-majority, Safe D.
District 84: SHAKER HEIGHTS-MAYFIELD HEIGHTS.  O 61.7%, D 65.8%.  82W/11B.  The white East Side district; splits Shaker Heights with 82 but most is here.  Safe D.
District 85: CLEVELAND HEIGHTS-SOUTH EUCLID-EAST CLEVELAND.  O 86.6%, D 86.3%.  39W/54B.  Black-majority, includes a small portion of Cleveland.  Safe D.
District 86: CLEVELAND SOUTHEAST-GARFIELD HEIGHTS.  O 86.5%, D 86.7%.  32W/65B.  The east side of the Cuyahoga Valley.  Black-majority, Safe D.
District 87: CLEVELAND BROOKLYN/TREMONT-BROOK PARK.  O 57.8%, D 65.7%.  Kind of awkward how this district (the last one to split Cleveland and its burbs) wraps around Parma, but that's how the math worked out.  Includes the airport.  Safe D.
District 88: CLEVELAND CENTER.  O 91.6%, D 89.3%.  28W/61B.  Safe D.
District 89: CLEVELAND WEST SIDE.  O 72.6%, D 75.4%.  61W/16B/19H.  Safe D.
District 90: LAKEWOOD-ROCKY RIVER.  O 59.1%, D 60.4%.  Also includes Bay Village and Fairview Park; just those four towns.  Safe D.
District 91: NORTH OLMSTED-WESTLAKE.  O 52.7%, D 56.3%.  Berea and Olmsted Township fill out this district.  Tossup.
District 92: PARMA.  O 56.4%, D 64.4%.  Plus Parma Heights.  Lean D.
District 93: STRONGSVILLE-NORTH ROYALTON.  O 44.9%, D 51.9%.  Plus Broadview Heights and Brecksville, the southernmost tier of towns in Cuyahoga.  Lean R.

And the rest of the Cleveland metro, south and west of Cuyahoga.


Summit (Akron) has five districts.  Akron is split in the same way as Dayton (one full district, parts of two others).
District 94: HUDSON-TWINSBURG.  O 48.7%, D 50.6%.  North Summit.  Lean R.
District 95: CUYAHOGA FALLS-STOW-AKRON NORTH.  O 55.7%, D 59.8%.  Lean D.
District 96: AKRON CENTER.  O 82.8%, D 82.3%.  49W/45B.  Black-plurality by total population.  Safe D.
District 97: GREEN-BARBERTON.  O 50.9%, D 60.5%.  South Summit.  Tossup.
District 98: TALLMADGE-SPRINGFIELD-AKRON SOUTH.  O 56.6%, D 66.6%.  Lean D.

And finally, Lorain and Medina share four districts.  Two entirely in Lorain, one in Medina, one shared.
District 99: MEDINA-WADSWORTH.  O 43.6%, D 47.9%.  The all-Medina district.  Safe R.
District 100: BRUNSWICK-OBERLIN.  O 52.5%, D 60.0%.  The split district.  Lean D.
District 101: ELYRIA-NORTH RIDGEVILLE.  O 57.8%, D 64.1%.  Safe D.
District 102: LORAIN-AVON LAKE.  O 60.0%, D 64.4%.  76W/13H.  Safe D.

Assuming that my rankings are accurate (not always a correct assumption), we have:

32 Safe D
11 Lean D
11 Tossup
12 Lean R
36 Safe R

The DRA numbers are somewhat Dem-skewed, which I tried to mentally take into account, but perhaps not enough- this is a mostly reasonable spread as it stands, but if my rankings are too optimistic we could be seeing a Pub-favoring map.  Eight black-majority districts (five Cuyahoga, two Columbus, one Cincy) and several more black-plurality by VAP or just total.

[Hatman 🍁]

Names are getting better (some issues, but I'll leave you alone)

One thing I should note is don't try to avoid county directionals all together. If you have a county with tons of ridings, then yes- avoid them in place of city names, but if you have a count with 2 ridings and neither focus on a particular city, it's safe to go with "X West" and "X East" for example. It's rare these days to have a riding that fits this description in Canada (Simcoe North is one of the few examples), but it was very common in the past.  It seems that this type of situation would occur more often in the US.

Also, if a riding contains a county plus a part of a city outside that county, you don't need a directional on that city name. Your example of Toledo East-Oregon would best be named "Oregon-Toledo".

Also, Cincinnati West-Center wouldn't be a name chosen. Perhaps just Cincinnati West?

[ElectionsGuy]

Hey guys, just a tip of advice, to make us see the districts better in pictures, uncheck the "Vote District Lines" and crank up the Color Opacity to almost maximum. This way we can see the individual districts much nicer and better. Thanks.