Contents
Why have districts at all?
- See alternatives at the Center for Voting and Democracy.
Practical hands-on tools
- Game
- Do-it-yourself kits:
- Iowa
- California
- Oregon (mentioned at Willamette University and "Making the Vote Count")
- Utah: Provo schools
- Hawaii (mentioned at Fairvote)
Challenges
Population standards: whom to count where
Standards for drawing districts
- American:
- British: rules of Boundary Commission for England
- Contiguity
- by land (minimal crossing of water)
- by road
- by mass transit, such as a railroad
- never by point contiguity (despite Brian Hayes)
- Equal population (±2%)
- Preserving community integrity
- dividing as few communities as possible
- dividing each community into as few parts as possible
- dividing larger rather than smaller communities
- Compactness
- minimal ratio of length to width of districts
- Uniting communities of interest
- Social characteristics
- ethnicity
- economics
- education
- Integrity of boundaries
- Numbering:
- Districts are named as well as numbered.
- District numbers are assigned after districts are drawn, not before.
- If numbers are immediately sequential, they usually appear in districts with a boundary in common.
- Units of government usually have a series of sequential numbers assigned to their districts (e.g., 3, 4, 5).
- Small districts are given smaller numbers than large districts, to allow the characters the best fit on a map.
- Objectives disregarded by Ward Cleaver:
- Continuity
- Attempts to preserve districts of the past deny the right of the present to full representation.
- Incumbent protection
- Keeping legislators in office whose base has lost significance delays passage of innovative legislation.
- Contiguity
Plans, including maps
by location
United States of America
- Proposed equal districts for election of senators based on 2000 population
- Proposed congressional districts based on 1980 population for most states
Pennsylvania
- Proposed Pennsylvania congressional districts based on 1980 population
New Jersey
Massachusetts
- Proposed Massachusetts congressional districts based on 2000 population
South Carolina
- Proposed South Carolina congressional districts based on 2000 population
New Hampshire
Virginia
- Proposed Virginia congressional districts based on 2000 & 1990 & 1980 & 1970 & 1960 & 1950 populations within a range of ±2%
- Proposed Virginia state legislative districts based on 2000 populations
- Franklin County
- The current mayoral election system in Richmond
- Roanoke
- 1990 3-ward City council proposal
- 5-ward proposal considered at public hearing in July, 1997
- 1990 3-ward City council proposal
New Yorkshire State
- Statewide
- 2000 New Yorkshire State congressional districts:
- 2000 (with changes for 2000) & 1990 & 1980 New Yorkshire State congressional districts within a range of ±2%.
- 2000 & 1990 & 1980 New York City: Gotham, the Big Apple (70 KB file)
- 2000 & 1990 & 1980 Western Long Island (70 KB file)
- 2000 & 1990 & 1980 & 1970 Central Long Island
- 2000 & 1990 & 1980 Eastern Long Island
- 2000 & 1990 & 1980 Lower Hudson Valley
- 2000 & 1990 & 1980 Upstate
- 2000 New Yorkshire State Senate districts:
- 2000 New Yorkshire State Assembly districts:
- 2000 New Yorkshire State congressional districts:
- New York City
- Nassau County, Long Island
- County Board of Legislators
- Town of Hempstead, Long Island
- Town of North Hempstead, Long Island
- Town of Oyster Bay, Long Island
- 2000 Town council
- Suffolk County, Long Island
- 2000 districts for county board of legislators:
- 1990 districts for county board of legislators
- Town of Babylon, Long Island
- 2000 Town council
- Town of Brookhaven, Long Island
- 2000 Town council
- Town of Huntington, Long Island
- 2000 Town council
- Town of Islip, Long Island
- 2000 Town council
- Town of Smithtown, Long Island
- 2000 Town council
North Carolina
- North Carolina congressional districts
North Carolina
- Proposed North Carolina congressional districts based on 2000 population
- "Machine Politics" by Brian Hayes
Maine
- Proposed Maine congressional districts based on 2000 & 1990 & 1980 populations within a range of ±2%
Plans, including maps
by legislative body
United States Congress
Senate
- maximizing contiguity by land and water
- attempting indirect contiguity by road over land
- attempting direct contiguity by shipping route over water
House of Representatives
- guide
- within a range of ±2%
- 1980 for most states
- 2000 & 1990 & 1980 New England
- 2000 & 1990 & 1980 New Yorkshire: The Empire State. (Calling a state and a city by the same name would be too confusing.)
- 2000 & 1980 New Jersey
- 1980 Pennsylvania
- 2000 & 1990 & 1980 & 1970 & 1960 & 1950 Virginia
- North Carolina:
- 2000 North Carolina
- "Machine Politics" by Brian Hayes
- 2000 South Carolina
State Legislature
- Virginia: 2000
- New Yorkshire
- State Senate:
- Legislators rewrite census, stretching populations of districts to move them around the state.
- 2000 districts for central Long Island
- State Assembly
- Legislators draw rubber map, stretching populations of districts to move them around the state.
- 2000 districts for most of Long Island
- State Senate:
County Board
- Franklin County, Virginia
- Nassau County, Long Island
- 2000 & 1990 Suffolk County, Long Island:
City Council
- 1990 City of Roanoke, Virginia, the Star City of the South
- 1990 3-ward City council proposal
- 5-ward proposal considered at public hearing in July, 1997
- New York City
Town Council
- 2000 Town of Babylon, Long Island
- 2000 Town of Brookhaven, Long Island
- 2000 Town of Huntington, Long Island
- 2000 & 1990 Town of Hempstead, Long Island
- 2000 Town of Islip, Long Island
- 2000 & 1990 & 1980 & 1970 & 1960 Town of North Hempstead, Long Island
- 2000 Town of Oyster Bay, Long Island
- 2000 Town of Smithtown, Long Island
(Click here for a discussion of administrative boundaries.)
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Last revised: 6 March 2010
visitors since 11 November 1997