Dave's Redistricting App

[mozo]

My first attempt .. I tried to make a "serious" map under the 2008 projections, with the assumption that NC will still have 13 Congressional districts. But make a map that is relatively safe for the incumbents, conforms to traditional expectations, and has two minority districts that are not grotesque looking.

I managed to get Mel Watt's 12th district to fit in 3 counties, and create a map with only 13 counties split (an average of 1 per district). My new 2nd district is the other minority district. The VRA districts have 54% nonwhite voters, and I was able to keep all the districts within 5000 votes of each other.

From left to right:

11th gets both Asheville and Boone, probably would remain Dem.
10th stays pretty much the same, with a few county line crosses. Put western Cornelius in it.
12th is almost reasonable now... just most of Charlotte, Kannapolis, and Salisbury. Still would pass VRA and keep Mel Watt (not that I want to!)
5th stays about the same, gave all of Iredell to Virginia Foxx
6th gets Davidson and Randoph, that’s probably fine with Howard Coble. He gets to keep southeast Guilford where he grew up and attends church.
9th includes GOP heavy south Charlotte plus Union county. It gets some of the more rural and minority counties to the east too but I think the suburban vote would predominate and Sue Myrick would stay.
8th becomes a bit more rural by moving it away from Mecklenburg. Remains a competitive swing district.
3rd moves east a bit but remains what it is, conservative farm country that Jones would win again.
7th does not change much.
4th would be impossible to pry from David price, including Durham and most of Chapel Hill.
13th would be a solid Dem district by including most of Greensboro.
2nd is a VRA district. It rambles a bit and splits some counties but it reasonably compact.
1st is a weird shape but it’s what was left over after complying with VRA. Mostly unpopulated land and coastline, with a base of voters in northern Wake.