My conclusion from reading how the process works, is that these maps are close to meaningless.
Ok, so the idea is "let's do 5 outstate districts, three of them along the border, and then see where the chips fall."?
According to law, the commission must start with a map based only on two of their six criteria: population equality and compactness. Then the later stages incorporate the other four criteria (VRA, municipal boundaries, competitiveness, and a vague "communities of interest" requirement). The goal is to ensure that they're not just drawing the maps based on the existing incumbents' districts. Whether they actually meet this goal at the later stages is, of course, another question.
