EG's State Senate Thread

[Sol]

As always, my question is what criteria are you applying?

For the numbers (the 27/3, for instance)? The rankings, which, are sometimes hard to judge, but do much better than just '08 numbers.

Otherwise I'm not sure what your talking about. I'm just drawing state senate districts.

I think he's talking about stuff like UCCs, CoI, etc.

[Sol]

And how do you draw a map please? It would interest me (because I would like to make the PVI of the state legislatures)

Dave's redistricting app.

Warning- it'll slow down your computer for a bit, depending on the state's size.

[Sol]

You have some VRA issues for your ND map. Firstly, you have to draw a Rolette County district. You also need to put Fort Berthold back together.

[Sol]

There's no good reason to not keep Fort Berthold in one district.

[Sol]

I've been mapping Texas myself recently, and you basically have to focus, laserlike, the VRA (which doesn't just mean majority-minority districts in TX- a 55% Latino district that swallows up republican exurbia for that other 45% is probably illegal, due to weird turnout rates) . What are the Hispanic percentages?

[Sol]

You probably need to split District 4 and 9 on a vertical axis instead of a horizontal one.

Also, maybe make the Houston district more Hispanic?

[Sol]

How much to Latinos in NW Arkansas vote? In 2020, AR may prefer to draw one heavily Latino district that will for sure elect a candidate of choice.

[Sol]

How much to Latinos in NW Arkansas vote? In 2020, AR may prefer to draw one heavily Latino district that will for sure elect a candidate of choice.

They hardly vote at all.  I drew a senate district which was 40% Hispanic and it was 65% McCain.  So, they are either not voting, or are very Republican, and the former is more likely.

Yeah, they'll probably want to pack it to be very Latino then, to insulate them from a legal challenge.

[Sol]

That 91% black SD is going to be a target for litigation as illegal packing, and I only count 6 SD that are majority black. Currently there are 9 Chicago area seats that elect black Senators. Most observers would say that anything less than 8 SDs where the black population can elect a candidate of choice is going to run into challenges.

You only have 3 majority and 1 plurality Hispanic SDs. There are 4 current seats, though many think a fifth should have been drawn. 59% HVAP is seen as a minimum to avoid dilution charges, though the fifth seat could possibly be under that.

I don't get it. Some of the downstate districts are over 90% white, is that "illegal packing" too? Black people happen to live around other black people, there's nothing I can do about that and I want the districts to look neat with no obscure gerrymanders. And the whole idea of a democracy is for everyone to elect a candidate of their choice, not just a particular race or group. People can elect whoever they want, I think these quotas just make drawing districts harder than it needs to be.

Well, that's fine. The problem is of course that that would be found illegal in a court of law.

[Sol]

How many black majority districts are in that Florida map?

I'm also a little concerned that you don't have enough majority latino districts in south florida--it is a similar issue with regards to the south side in that respect.