Dave's Redistricting App

[Linus Van Pelt]

I just drew a Michigan gerrymander that I think would go 13-1 Democratic right now, possibly 11-3 in a good year for Republicans but still intensely favoring the Democrats and mostly safe. Will post it later.

I'd still be interested in seeing this, if you have it.

[Linus Van Pelt]

Thanks! It's quite something that you can keep two black-majority districts while still giving Wayne the Chicago-style treatment.

But don't you think Upton could hold CD-12?

[Linus Van Pelt]

2 majority black districts and 6 strong Obama ones.

Good heavens. If one can divide the Baltimore area into three D districts like this, why does the current map have to look like it was designed by Benoit Mandelbrot on an acid trip?

[Linus Van Pelt]

Yeah, I think two issues are being confused.

Section 2 of the VRA has various general requirements that voting procedures not discriminate against minorities. There have been various interpretations of the exact consequences of this for district drawing, but this section is the basic source of the idea that minorities get their own districts.

Section 5, meanwhile, requires certain jurisdictions which have a history of Section 2 violations or other racial discrimination to "preclear" any changes to their voting procedures with the federal justice department to ensure they don't discriminate against minorities.

BRTD's map is a map of areas which require preclearance under Section 5. I have no idea why those New Hampshire towns are in there; presumably they have some history of discriminatory voting laws from way back when. It's only a small handful of towns, though, not all the counties in pink: the map uses the term "township coverage" to mean just "at least one township in this county".

[Linus Van Pelt]

So, I tried clicking on the new version of the App, having only used the original version, and a pop-up box came up saying I needed to download an updated version of Silverlight, so I clicked on the link, downloaded the new version of Silverlight, and installed it - or at least, installed it as far as I can tell, since it said "the software was successfully installed" at the last step of the installer - but now both the new version and the original App don't work - instead when I click on either link, all I get is a light blue icon in the top left telling me... to install Microsoft Silverlight!



Any thoughts from the more IT-savvy out there?

[Linus Van Pelt]

So, I tried clicking on the new version of the App, having only used the original version, and a pop-up box came up saying I needed to download an updated version of Silverlight, so I clicked on the link, downloaded the new version of Silverlight, and installed it - or at least, installed it as far as I can tell, since it said "the software was successfully installed" at the last step of the installer - but now both the new version and the original App don't work - instead when I click on either link, all I get is a light blue icon in the top left telling me... to install Microsoft Silverlight!



Any thoughts from the more IT-savvy out there?

What browser are you using?

Firefox, though the same thing happens when I try it with Safari.

[Linus Van Pelt]

I just re-installed the same version of Silverlight, and now it's working. So who knows.

[Linus Van Pelt]

BTW, this Dave isn't Dave Leip, is he?

No, this is one Dave Bradlee.