21st Century Redistricting: Enter Now to Win!

As states across the nation redraw legislative district lines based on new census data, competitions are currently underway in Michigan and Arizona offering members of the public the opportunity to try their hand at drawing new congressional and state legislative maps for their states. The aim of contest organizers is to make the redistricting process more transparent and participatory than ever before.
 
The rules are simple: Use open-source software to redistrict your state according to constitutional requirements. Plans will be judged on how well they meet four of the six constitutional requirements: Each district must be roughly equal in population and appear compact enough to not be considered sprawling. New districts must be “competitive” and cannot take into account partisan composition. User-submitted maps must also meet the requirements of the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority representation in certain regions of the country.
 
Plans are also required to keep “communities of interest” intact, including ethnic enclaves, and participants are urged to respect geographic, county, city, and town boundaries insofar as possible.
 
Both contests are currently underway, with plans due for Michigan by May 20, and Arizona by June 6. Winning entries will be presented to Michigan’s legislature and Arizona’s redistricting commission, respectively.
 
Micha Altman, a senior research scientist at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science and a senior non-resident fellow with the Brookings Institution, is working closely with both states as they utilize software that he and George Mason University Associate Professor of Government and Politics Michael McDonald developed. (An article by Altman and McDonald in the January issue of C&E discussed the software and its potential to foster greater public participation in redistricting.)
 
Altman predicts significant public participation in the Michigan and Arizona contests, given the recent success of a similar contest in Virginia, which also used the redistricting software he helped develop. “For the contest in Virginia that recently concluded, we got fifty-five maps submitted, which is more than any other public mapping effort in history,” he says.
 
McDonald, however, points out that the Virginia contest was open only to students and suggests that the Arizona and Michigan contests will draw participation by a broader swath of the public.
 
So far, Altman says that districts in user-submitted maps are more competitive than those typically in effect, which tend to be drawn to protect incumbents. “The plans that they can come up with are revealing different sorts of possibilities than the partisan plans we are used to seeing,” says Altman.
 
McDonald is excited about the potential for the Arizona redistricting contest to have a real impact on that state’s ultimate redistricting plan. There, an independent commission responsible for drawing new district lines is required to take into account maps drawn up by Arizona citizens. “This is a very exciting opportunity for us because we know the maps that are produced will affect the deliberations that are before the commission in Arizona,” says McDonald.
 
However, McDonald says that “Michigan is on the other end of the spectrum.” There, a Republican-controlled legislature will receive the plans drawn up by the public, but is not required to take them into account when drawing new district lines. There may, however, be political fallout if the legislature ignores input from the public.
 
“This gives us a baseline for what is possible in redistricting,” says Altman. “It means that when partisan plans are adopted, the public is aware that there are publicly available alternatives. It may also be a reference for the courts that other viable plans were created if the adopted plan is challenged.”
 Noah Rothman is the online editor at C&E. E-mail him at nrothman@campaignsandelections.com