Dave's Redistricting App

[Bacon King]

Maryland is easy to gerrymander.



Blue: Obama+10
Green: Obama+10
Purple: Obama+48
Red: Obama+31
Yellow: Obama+9
Gray: Obama+81
Grayish Blue: Obama+12
Teal: Obama+12

Thinking about it, I could easily shore up the yellow district to O+20 by switching bits with gray, but I don't think that's not even needed. This map doesn't even look that bad, outside of the purple/blue boundary in the Baltimore area.

[Bacon King]

And now here's a GOP gerrymander of Maryland! Under good conditions, anyway.



Blue: McCain+8
Green: McCain+11
Grayish Blue: McCain+7
Teal: McCain+8
Purple: Obama+79
Red: Obama+43
Yellow: Obama+48
Gray: Obama+79

[RIP Robert H Bork]

And now here's a GOP gerrymander of Maryland! Under good conditions, anyway.



Blue: McCain+8
Green: McCain+11
Grayish Blue: McCain+7
Teal: McCain+8
Purple: Obama+79
Red: Obama+43
Yellow: Obama+48
Gray: Obama+79

Good job, you did it even better than I did.

[Free Palestine]

Here's the map.  Districts of New York.

[RI]

I've been trying to gerrymander Louisiana with three majority black districts, but I figured out that it isn't quite possible with six districts without making the map completely ridiculous. However, it can be done with the current seven districts.



All less than 500 from ideal:

Blue: 85% White, 10% Black
Green: 54% Black, 43% White
Purple: 77% White, 13% Black, 5% Hispanic
Red: 74% White, 22% Black
Yellow: 50.3% Black, 46.5% White
Teal: 80% White, 15% Black
Gray: 61% Black, 31% White

Lousiana has actually had far more atrocious gerrymanders than this in the past.

[Bo]

I've been trying to gerrymander Louisiana with three majority black districts, but I figured out that it isn't quite possible with six districts without making the map completely ridiculous. However, it can be done with the current seven districts.



All less than 500 from ideal:

Blue: 85% White, 10% Black
Green: 54% Black, 43% White
Purple: 77% White, 13% Black, 5% Hispanic
Red: 74% White, 22% Black
Yellow: 50.3% Black, 46.5% White
Teal: 80% White, 15% Black
Gray: 61% Black, 31% White

Lousiana has actually had far more atrocious gerrymanders than this in the past.

That is actually a very neat map. The Justice Department should force LA to have 2 black majority seats even if LA has just 6 districts after the 2010 Census. African-Americans make up about 1/3 of Louisiana's population, so it's only fair for there to be 2 black majority seats.

[Verily]

I just did a Louisiana map with six seats, two of which are black majority and one of which is 49% black, 47% white. It's a bit more intricate than Realisticidealist's, but not dramatically so. The districts are basically modeled off of his.

LA-01: 86% white, 7% black
LA-02: 52% black, 43% white
LA-03: 50.1% black, 39.7% white
LA-04: 77% white, 16% black
LA-05: 48.8% black, 46.8% white
LA-06: 79% white, 16% black

It would be possible to get LA-05 to 50% black, but only with very intricate gerrymandering.

[Verily]

It should be noted that my map uses the new population estimates, which make it much, much more difficult to form a black-majority district in the New Orleans area than it used to be.

[Bacon King]

Come on now, guys, if you're gonna gerrymander Louisiana, DO IT LIKE A MAN.

Behold! With 2000 census numbers, four black-majority districts:



(all districts +/- 750 from ideal)

green: 50% black, 47% white
yellow: 50% black, 47% white
teal: 50% black, 46% white
gray: 50% black, 41% white

blue: 86% white, 7% black
purple: 85% white, 12% black
red: 85% white, 9% black

It's such a horrible monstrosity of a map, I love it. I challenge anyone to beat this!

[RI]

Come on now, guys, if you're gonna gerrymander Louisiana, DO IT LIKE A MAN.

Behold! With 2000 census numbers, four black-majority districts:



(all districts +/- 750 from ideal)

green: 50% black, 47% white
yellow: 50% black, 47% white
teal: 50% black, 46% white
gray: 50% black, 41% white

blue: 86% white, 7% black
purple: 85% white, 12% black
red: 85% white, 9% black

It's such a horrible monstrosity of a map, I love it. I challenge anyone to beat this!

Is the red district even contiguous?

[Bacon King]

I'm assuming it is, yes, across the bay there.

Still, even if it's not, this map is still up on the computer and have been fine-tuning it as much as possible; the red connects now over land.

I've shifted the red, yellow, purple and green districts around to make the green district 51% black instead of barely at the cusp of fifty (it was actually being rounded up from something like 49.7% or so). I've also increased population equality to within 400, and in the process gave the red district that one voting precinct there to make it look better.

I'll post the updated map if you're interested but the changes are basically the yellow district shoring up its black margins by giving away the white bits of Shrevport in exchange for grabbing racially mixed rural precincts across the north, yellow giving up part of its territory in Rapides to green (with purple snaking through with a single precinct space between), some minor swaps across the purple/green border, and red swallowing up the rest of Vernon and Allan from purple. Also the better-connected red in the south.

[Bo]

I'm assuming it is, yes, across the bay there.

Still, even if it's not, this map is still up on the computer and have been fine-tuning it as much as possible; the red connects now over land.

I've shifted the red, yellow, purple and green districts around to make the green district 51% black instead of barely at the cusp of fifty (it was actually being rounded up from something like 49.7% or so). I've also increased population equality to within 400, and in the process gave the red district that one voting precinct there to make it look better.

I'll post the updated map if you're interested but the changes are basically the yellow district shoring up its black margins by giving away the white bits of Shrevport in exchange for grabbing racially mixed rural precincts across the north, yellow giving up part of its territory in Rapides to green (with purple snaking through with a single precinct space between), some minor swaps across the purple/green border, and red swallowing up the rest of Vernon and Allan from purple. Also the better-connected red in the south.

Post the map, please.

[Bacon King]

Here's a four black majority district Louisiana, done much better I think.



Yellow, green, gray and red are all 50% black. Blue, purple, and teal are each 84-88% white.

This wouldn't even be a horrible looking map if gray and green weren't so stringy.

[Bo]

Here's a four black majority district Louisiana, done much better I think.



Yellow, green, gray and red are all 50% black. Blue, purple, and teal are each 84-88% white.

This wouldn't even be a horrible looking map if gray and green weren't so stringy.

What are the demographics of the districts using 2008 numbers?

[jimrtex]

This wouldn't even be a horrible looking map if gray and green weren't so stringy.

Use microthreads to connect areas.  They could be a millimeter wide and run along the edges of precincts.  You can define them as having no persons living in them.

[Bacon King]

This wouldn't even be a horrible looking map if gray and green weren't so stringy.

Use microthreads to connect areas.  They could be a millimeter wide and run along the edges of precincts.  You can define them as having no persons living in them.

Now that would make it TOO easy

btw, 2008 data for these districts.

green: 50443 population deviation; 51% black
yellow: 5063 population deviation; 51% black
gray: 16214 population deviation; 52% black

red: -164256 population deviation; 47% white, 42% black, 7% hispanic

blue: 12600 population deviation; 84% white
purple: 24063 population deviation; 82% white
teal: 55871 populationd deviation; 85% white

Basically, the only district that at this point would have radically altered demographics is the New Orleans area one, so while it couldn't be anymore considered a max racial gerrymander you could still consider it a maxed partisan gerrymander, as most white voters in Orleans parish are fairly Democratic.

[they don't love you like i love you]

I just realized West Virginia is going to be kind of tricky. WV-02 doesn't look that bad on a state map because of WV's odd shape, but it is really just a long string of counties. The other districts need to cut into it, and doing that without breaking the counties is more difficult than one'd think. It's not impossible but WV-02 will end up even more funky-looking.

[Tuck!]

[Bo]

That are the demographics and your guesstimates for the Obama-McCain %s in all those districts?

[Tuck!]

That are the demographics and your guesstimates for the Obama-McCain %s in all those districts?

This is a Democratic gerrymander.

[Torie]

And to think I never noticed this toy before. Hmmm.

[muon2]

And to think I never noticed this toy before. Hmmm.

It's fun, but it does have limitations. For instance, it applies changes in population to all districts within a county equally. Also, for some states the voting districts are outdated.

[Bacon King]

A ten-district Arizona, based on 2010 estimates, with three Hispanic-majority districts. Maximum population deviation in the map is 650 though with minimal border-tinkering I could probably get it down to about 200. My goals here were to create the third VRA district, preserve the Navajo County split while making it not look like a ridiculous gerrymander, keep district boundaries roughly similar to the pre-existing ones, and to in general make the districts look as smooth as possible.

Here's the Phoenix area in detail:



and here's the specifics of the racial breakdowns (any group >3% listed)

1st: 61% White, 19% Native, 17% Hispanic
2nd: 72% White, 17% Hispanic, 6% Native
3rd: 72% White, 19% Hispanic, 4% Native
4th: 53% Hispanic, 35% White, 6% Black
5th: 82% White, 11% Hispanic
6th: 71% White, 21% Hispanic
7th: 57% Hispanic, 34% White, 4% Native
8th: 70% White, 21% Hispanic
9th: 56% Hispanic, 30% White, 8% Black
10th: 58% White, 28% Hispanic, 5% Black, 4% Asian, 4% Native

All in all, not that bad of a map I think. I have no idea what the partisan breakdown would be though. Anybody know?

[Bacon King]

4th, 7th, 9th: Democratic. Giffords would hold the 8th. Republicans would probably back the 7th without much difficulty though Mitchell could possibly hold it for a while (though he's from Tempe, so he might choose to stand in the 9th/10th instead?). 1st: Kilpatrick would hold it. 2nd, 3rd, 6th: Republican holds. 10th: My best guess would give it a slight Democratic lean but I'm not really sure.

So, 6D-4R?

[Brittain33]

I would guess the 10th is Republican, although in great flux because it has so much bubble housing in it that is destined to become slum. Harry Mitchell is out of a job with this map unless he can win a primary in the 9th because his base in Tempe is split and the relocated 5th would be won by any electable Republican.