2016 Lower Chamber Results Map (COMPLETE)

[Adam Griffin]

A work in progress. The file is immense (13100 x 5625), so bear with it.

Pretty straightforward:

Red: single- or multi-member districts represented (entirely) by Democratic representative(s)
Blue: single- or multi-member districts represented (entirely) by Republican representative(s)
Lime green: single- or multi-member districts represented (entirely) by independent representative(s)
Green: single- or multi-member districts represented (entirely) by "other party" representative(s)

Periwinkle: multi-member districts represented by more Reps than Dems
Pink: multi-member districts represented by more Dems than Reps
Purple: multi-member districts with equal numbers of Dem/Rep representatives
Yellow: multi-member districts with equal numbers of Dem/non-Rep representatives

Here is a blank version/template of the map below for anybody to use in their own projects. All but a handful of state house districts will color with a single click, and all of the rogue individual pixels have been cleaned up.

Full-size image (13100x5625)

 

[publicunofficial]

You are a god among men, Adam.

Edit: Are you going to do Alaska and Hawaii as well? Or are shapefiles for those two just impossible to get?

[Adam Griffin]

You are a god among men, Adam.

Edit: Are you going to do Alaska and Hawaii as well? Or are shapefiles for those two just impossible to get?

Yeah, I'll be able to do those as well - I just didn't add them to the initial template because it was a bit of a learning process to get my GIS program to take a high-resolution screenshot (you have to use the command prompt in Windows and feed it coordinates, etc), and having them in it at the time would've made the dimensions much larger: my computer is already hating this file at its current size. I'll be able to repeat the process for them separately, however, and add them in to this template.

Depending on what the issue is with the Census shapefiles/whether it was just a glitch with my program, KY may be the only issue. You have to pester the state's GIS guy usually to get an up-to-date shapefile - they don't usually publish them - but there may be an alternative online by now.


I've added several more states since last night; 28 in all are now complete. Vermont was a lot of fun!

[publicunofficial]

Will you be doing an Upper Chamber one as well?

[Nyvin]

Wow, it's really great to see the full size image

[RINO Tom]

Wow, cool!  Surprising to see that much strength for Democrats in Little Dixe (Oklahoma) still.

[Adam Griffin]

42 states completed; 8 to go. I also spent some time getting the original 5 states' shapefiles that weren't working to load up properly. Once I finish the continental US, I'll see about adding AK/HI (or perhaps create a separate image for AK due to its size).

[muon2]

NE doesn't have a lower chamber, just a Senate. In most legislative documents NE is left grey for the lower chamber. Also all Senators in NE run without party affiliation in a top-two primary. I assume that you are imputing the party of NE Senators from other sources.

[jimrtex]

NE doesn't have a lower chamber, just a Senate. In most legislative documents NE is left grey for the lower chamber. Also all Senators in NE run without party affiliation in a top-two primary. I assume that you are imputing the party of NE Senators from other sources.

Nebraska has a unicameral legislature. By tradition the members are referred to as "senators". It is the largest chamber for purposes of determining who may vote for Congress (and because of the non-partisan primary actually has an effect).

[muon2]

NE doesn't have a lower chamber, just a Senate. In most legislative documents NE is left grey for the lower chamber. Also all Senators in NE run without party affiliation in a top-two primary. I assume that you are imputing the party of NE Senators from other sources.

Nebraska has a unicameral legislature. By tradition the members are referred to as "senators". It is the largest chamber for purposes of determining who may vote for Congress (and because of the non-partisan primary actually has an effect).

My point is that to legislative organizations like the NCSL the unicameral legislature is an upper chamber. In national meetings the NE legislators are afforded the title and same courtesy as the senators of other states, so it seems like more than just tradition.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

South Carolina still has that many Democrats?

[cinyc]

You are a god among men, Adam.

Edit: Are you going to do Alaska and Hawaii as well? Or are shapefiles for those two just impossible to get?

Alaska and Hawaii are some of the easiest states to get shapefiles for, believe it or not.  The Alaska Lt. Governor's Division of Elections website is halfway decent.  It's places like Kentucky and New York that make you do extra work for shapefiles (precinct shapefiles in particular), if they are available at all.

Great map as always, Adam Griffin!

[Adam Griffin]

NE doesn't have a lower chamber, just a Senate. In most legislative documents NE is left grey for the lower chamber. Also all Senators in NE run without party affiliation in a top-two primary. I assume that you are imputing the party of NE Senators from other sources.

With NE just having one chamber, my plan is to include them in both the lower house and upper house maps I intend to make. I actually was not aware they were called "Senators" but by any other measurement, I don't see why they should be considered either a lower or upper chamber exclusively. The alternative - a big gray blob in the middle of the map - is just too aesthetically displeasing for my tastes.

And yes, their affiliations are drawn from a combination of state party endorsements (virtually every candidate gets endorsed by one or the other) and on-the-record statements by each individual.

South Carolina still has that many Democrats?

In sheer numbers, they only hold 35% of the chamber - not inherently out of line with many other comparably gerrymandered states.

However, they may very well hold districts comprising a majority of the state's geography, since most of the Black Belt counties are sparsely populated and such a large chunk of the state's population live in clusters either in the far north or south of the state that are substantially GOP. Presumably, the number of VRA-protected districts required had to be expanded in size to such a degree that they would encompass a much larger share of land mass than in many other states.

Mississippi is another good example (although perhaps not as extreme): Democrats still hold 40% of the seats there. A combination of a state being a) more rural/less urbanized and having rather homogeneous demographics spread across it, and b) having a very solid floor of Democrats (particularly if they're VRA protected) leads to this phenomenon. Ditto for Louisiana to some degree, and even AR until recently.

Contrast this with states like GA and NC, which have more substantial shares of their populations in a few urbanized clusters + less diverse/homogeneous rural spreads, and that fuels the difference.

[Adam Griffin]

You are a god among men, Adam.

Edit: Are you going to do Alaska and Hawaii as well? Or are shapefiles for those two just impossible to get?

Alaska and Hawaii are some of the easiest states to get shapefiles for, believe it or not.  The Alaska Lt. Governor's Division of Elections website is halfway decent.  It's places like Kentucky and New York that make you do extra work for shapefiles (precinct shapefiles in particular), if they are available at all.

Great map as always, Adam Griffin!

Thanks! I actually had no real issue with getting all of the House district shapefiles this time (though I was worried when KY was one of the 5 not initially working), but it turns out the only error was that for the 5 states affected, I had to load up a different file in the shapefile data than for the others.


AK & HI have also both been added. Obviously, AK (and maybe HI, too) is not at scale with the other states. For AK specifically, I screencapped as large of a image that would fit on my monitor, purged any pixels that would cause issue with coloring and then increased its size a bit to make it look less ridiculous/smaller than HI on the map, and to also make Fairbanks HDs somewhat visible w/o needing an inset.

[Adam Griffin]

This is now complete.

I've also added the complete blank version/template of the map in the original post for others to use in various projects. With the exception of just a handful of districts, every one is customized to color with a single click. I've also cleaned up all of the rogue individual pixels so that there are no random white pixels remaining in between districts.

[Gass3268]

This is now complete.

I've also added the complete blank version/template of the map in the original post for others to use in various projects. With the exception of just a handful of districts, every one is customized to color with a single click. I've also cleaned up all of the rogue individual pixels so that there are no random white pixels remaining in between districts.

Awesome! Upper Chamber next?

[SATW]

This is amazing. Great job!