Gerrymandering Grading Map
Methodology (Click to Expand)
This gerrymandering system is designed to reward compactness, and competitive seats, unlike many other gerrymandering scorecards that use mostly (or exclusively) Vote Share differences. Why? While Gerrymandering is the drawing of districts for political gain, sometimes better maps for keeping communities together can be obtained with a even more unbalanced partisan share. Wisconsin is generally a good example of this, despite being 6 GOP seats and 2 DEM seats, the map is generally very fair when it comes to keeping communities together. If you want a 4-4 Wisconsin you have to split Madison and Milwaukee.
Score: This is the final score, using the other factors weighted to come up with the final score. Higher is better
Compactness: We utilize the Compactness score from Dave's Redistricting App. This score is used as a 0-100. Higher is better
Splitting: We utilize the Splitting score from Dave's Redistricting App. This score is used as a 0-100. Higher is better
% Competitive Seats: When looking at partisan lean of seats we determine that seats with a presidential win of 5 or less are drawn competitively. While some more competitive seats are drawn with the intent the current incumbent can hold it, generally we expect seats under 5 points to be continuously fought over. While parties may target seats above this 5 point range, they typically do not. Higher is better
% Snake Districts: This number is determined by seeing the number of districts that are below 0.2 with the Polsby-Popper metric. Any district that has a score lower than 0.2 is marked as a snake district, then the number of snake districts is divided by total number of districts. Lower is better
Vote-Seat Gap: This is your most basic way of determining gerrymandering. What percent does X Party get, and what percent of seats are they expected to win in a neutral year. Subtract the two and get the difference. We do count Competitive seats as 0.5 of a seat. Higher is better
Data is sourced from America First Insight. For comments, questions, or concerns, please reach out to us at AF_Insight on X.