Can you create an Obama sweep in your state?

[Adam Griffin]

Obviously a sweep is impossible, but I was able to carve out a map with 12 Obama 2008 CDs (pretty sure with a bit more planning, a 13-1 is possible).



CD-1: 50.3% Obama, 48.9% McCain
CD-2: 51.2% Obama, 47.9% McCain
CD-3: 49.6% Obama, 49.5% McCain
CD-4: 50.2% Obama, 49.0% McCain
CD-5: 49.7% Obama, 49.5% McCain
CD-6: 49.8% Obama, 49.7% McCain
CD-7: 49.8% Obama, 49.6% McCain
CD-8: 49.8% Obama, 49.4% McCain
CD-9: 49.7% Obama, 49.5% McCain
CD-10: 73.5% McCain, 25.7% Obama
CD-11: 49.7% Obama, 49.7% McCain
CD-12: 66.2% McCain, 33.2% Obama
CD-13: 49.9% Obama, 49.6% McCain
CD-14: 51.4% Obama, 48.0% McCain

[Adam Griffin]

Obviously a sweep is impossible, but I was able to carve out a map with 12 Obama 2008 CDs (pretty sure with a bit more planning, a 13-1 is possible).



CD-1: 50.3% Obama, 48.9% McCain
CD-2: 51.2% Obama, 47.9% McCain
CD-3: 49.6% Obama, 49.5% McCain
CD-4: 50.2% Obama, 49.0% McCain
CD-5: 49.7% Obama, 49.5% McCain
CD-6: 49.8% Obama, 49.7% McCain
CD-7: 49.8% Obama, 49.6% McCain
CD-8: 49.8% Obama, 49.4% McCain
CD-9: 49.7% Obama, 49.5% McCain
CD-10: 73.5% McCain, 25.7% Obama
CD-11: 49.7% Obama, 49.7% McCain
CD-12: 66.2% McCain, 33.2% Obama
CD-13: 49.9% Obama, 49.6% McCain
CD-14: 51.4% Obama, 48.0% McCain

The point contiguity is unfortunate (eg. 7-10, 10-11). Is it possible to draw the districts with regular contiguity only?

I'm pretty sure point contiguity is allowed in Georgia (the 2001 Barnesmander featured it, if I recall correctly, and we have quite a number of precincts that are drawn this way, too), but yes, I could draw a similarly-balanced map without it (I actually like point contiguity, to add a kick of flavor to any gerrymander).

[Adam Griffin]

Obviously a sweep is impossible, but I was able to carve out a map with 12 Obama 2008 CDs (pretty sure with a bit more planning, a 13-1 is possible).

After playing around with DRA a bit, I don't think a 13-1 is doable. It doesn't appear to be possible to draw a single district in such a way that the remainder of the state has an Obama plurality. The maximum GOP pack I have been able to draw still gives an 8000 vote margin for McCain in the rest of the state (if you want to make an attempt to prove the theoretical possibility of a 13-1 map though, I recommend you use the "old way" to color by election because the >80% GOP precincts are easy to spot

I got McCain's margin down to 4,100 like so (don't worry: 3 instances of point contiguity around the metro!), but I'm going to take another whack at it later. Based on some of the areas I did fill out initially, I still think it is actually possible.

[Adam Griffin]

EDIT: This has one slight point contiguity issue that I didn't catch before, and I may fix it later, but given the margin I was able to generate for Obama in the rest of the state I'm confident that the overall result will still hold once fixed

CD:

McCain 81.1% (263,709)
Obama 18.0% (58,554)

Rest of the State:

Obama 49.6% (1,785,652)
McCain 49.6% (1,785,116)