Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

Now you can draw state redistricting maps too

Molly Wood Jan 4, 2011
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Now you can draw state redistricting maps too

Molly Wood Jan 4, 2011
HTML EMBED:
COPY

We talk to Kimball Brace of Election Data Services, a longtime consultant on reapportionment, who says that modern software is able to crunch many different types of data, including ethnicity, income, and population density. Since new districts are drawn up with some consideration as to politics, voting records are also entered into the equation for politicians who want to gerrymander their maps.

It’s pretty different, says Brace, from the old days when he used to cover a two-story wall with a massive map and then use ladders, acetate overlays, punch cards, and a computer rented from a bank.

Dr. Michael P. McDonald of George Mason University has developed an open source browser-based web tool called District Builder. It’s kind of like a video game: you can draw your own districts and try to balance out the populations just like the legislatures must. Many states accept citizen plans as part of the deliberative process. And even if yours doesn’t, McDonald believes some knowledge and transparency would be a good thing in what can be an opaque process.

Also in this program, the latest installment of The Age Of The Jetsons May Be Upon Us as robot maids head out to clean your bathroom.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.