DistrictBuilder, Azavea’s free redistricting tool, recently held a contest in partnership with the Public Mapping Project as a way to encourage more participation in the redistricting process. For the competition, contestants were asked to draw redistricted maps from the following five state’s chambers:
- Florida Congressional, State Senate, and State House
- Illinois State House and State Senate
- North Carolina Congressional
- Pennsylvania Congressional
- Wisconsin State Senate or Wisconsin Assembly
The DistrictBuilder team knows that redistricting only gets better when more people are involved. They, therefore, hosted Map Across America to engage mappers in the redistricting process in a fun way. The high participation in this competition proved that not only are better maps produced when more people get involved in redistricting, but also that people are eager to get involved. The DistrictBuilder team and the judges, including active academics and researchers in the redistricting space, were blown away by the many excellent maps submitted and are happy to showcase the winner’s submissions. Below we have featured the winners’ maps with details on why they were chosen.
Teddy Warner for Illinois State Senate: Winner for Majority-Minority District Consideration
“This map is excellent in its achievement of maximizing majority-minority districts with minimal partisan lean.” – Judges Statement
Teddy’s Map Narrative:
- Districts are contiguous and have an equal population
- Communities of interest were maintained where possible, with only 18 counties split
- 19 districts are majority-minority
- Offers a major improvement in compactness score with a score of 42% in comparison to the current score of 24%
Paul Nieves for North Carolina Congress: Winner for Partisan Fairness
“This map’s statistics speak for themself. There is high efficiency and 4 swing districts with exceptional partisan balance. The scores for this map were some of the best we have seen in the competition. It also maintains a good number of majority-minority districts and accurately represents North Carolina.” – Judges Statement
Paul’s Map Narrative:
- The efficiency gap, declination, and mean-median difference are less than 1%
- 5 districts consistently lean Democrat and 6 lean Republican
- The remaining swing districts are consistently competitive since they combine areas with different partisan leanings
Craig Wilding for Florida House of Representatives: Judges Award Winner
“This plan scores exceptionally on majority-minority representations. In addition, it scores well on partisan metrics – including bias, efficiency, and declination.” – Judges Statement
Craig’s Map Narrative:
- The huge growth in Osceola County of 150,000+ over the new average was enough for it to have its own district
- Districts 39 and 42 shrunk to keep within limits due to new growth
- District 56 became a new district holding all the population growth in that area
Abbie Wager for North Carolina Congress: Judges Award Winner
“Abbie’s map of North Carolina Congressional Districts minimize county splits while still being among the best North Carolina plans on partisan fairness. The plan has one of the fewest county splits of any plan submitted, fewer than the current district, and also closely reflects the state’s partisan lean.” – Judges Statement
Abbie’s Map Narrative:
- Maintains a number of competitive districts
- A minimal number of districts were broken
- Compactness evaluation is low, but not enough to concern district members’ interests
We’re thankful for the devoted mappers that have contributed over 50,000 maps to DistrictBuilder to date. Want to get more involved in the redistricting process and map your own future? Start drawing in DistrictBuilder today.