Redistrict NJ

[muon2]

I spent a few hours last night to make a 12-seat map. The 12th district was removed and the others generally made more compact. NJ-13 around Jersey City becomes the new NJ-12.

I kept all local units and smaller counties intact. I was able to get all but three districts within 500 persons of the ideal size. Those others are 1000 and 1500 under (NJ-8 Paterson, NJ-11 Parsippany) and 2500 over (NJ-7 Edison) the ideal size and could probably be improved by splitting Somerset and Morris counties. I have not yet looked at voting histories or minority strength.

Update With some shifts, the map below now has the NJ-10 Newark at about 50% Black. A significantly larger fraction is difficult without splitting towns. The districts that vary by more than 500 persons are NJ-7 Edison (+1300), NJ-8 Paterson (-800), NJ-10 Newark (+1000), and NJ-11 Parsippany (-1400).

[muon2]

I updated my earlier map to improve Black population percentage in the Newark CD-10. It is hard to get significantly above 50% without splitting towns since the district size grows substantially as the number of CDs drops from 13 to 12 and there are few towns in that area that have over 50% Black population.