So i figured what if voting districts in Texas had to follow some sort of logical rules in order to exist? All districts start by following city boundaries, then if necessary move to county boundaries; this rule is only broken for population reasons. The application has some limitations with this such as voting districts not aligning to cities so i did the best i could. I’ll add the break down of each district later i’m too tired tonight
CD-32 West Dallas, Addison
CD-30 East Dallas, Park Cities, Balch Springs
CD-12 Fort Worth, Westover Hills
CD-6 Arlington, Grand Praire, Mansfield
CD-3 (North Dallas Suburbs) Plano, Frisco, Richardson, Allen, McKinney (Partial)
CD-5 (East and South Dallas Suburbs) Garland, Rockwall, Mesquite, Duncanville, DeSoto
CD-24 (North Fort Worth Suburbs) Irving, Grapevine, Keller, Richland Hills
CD-26 Denton, Flower Mound, Lewisville, Carrollton
CD-4 (DFW Exurbs) Cleburne, Waxahachie, Greenville, McKinney
CD-20 West San Antonio, Castle Hills
CD-21 East San Antonio, Alamo Heights
CD-23 San Antonio Suburbs and exurbs
But I believe that some states do not allow for one district to be completely surrounded by another. You have 2 such districts here. Any insight about the laws in Texas?
So much more sensible than what the current map is like.
Also look at http://www.rangevoting.org/TXs… or http://bdistricting.com/TX/
The bdistricting seems to be based on distance; the rangevoting is based on splitting the state along the shortest straight lines. (http://www.rangevoting.org/GerryExamples.html)
Here is what Greg Giroux from CQPolitics said when I asked him a similar question over a year ago about this same hypothetical situation:
“Thanks for the question. There are requirements that districts be contiguous and roughly equal in population, but I haven’t encountered a case like this and am not aware of any law that would prevent the creation of a bulls-eye-style district that is enveloped by another district.
Greg Giroux”
partisan breakdown.
i just finished a map. if you think now is bad, try 36 districts, only 7 democratic, but 13 VRA. That’s right, split San Antonio into 3 to dilute it completely and all the districts are Hispanic GOP. Split El Paso in 2 to make a panhandle, Lubbock district Hispanic. Create one in South Texas in the more Republican parts, and one in the Houston Suburbs. Of course demographic trends could be an issue.