Geography 23: Power, Territoriality and Political Geography Redistricting Texas

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1 Geography 23: Power, Territoriality and Political Geography Redistricting Texas Introduction: Each group will create a redistricting plan with six electoral districts for the state of Texas using MapInfo, a GIS package available on PUBLIC. Groups will then formally present their redistricting plans in a public hearing to a special redistricting panel in class on October 28, 29 and 30. Opposing groups will have the opportunity to ask questions and to challenge each plan. In order to simplify the assignment, we are using counties as the basic spatial unit to create districts. Thus you will divide the 254 counties in Texas into six districts that fulfill your group s particular goals. The data set for this exercise comes from actual Census and election data, but I have modified it to compensate for using such large spatial units. Written Report: In addition to the oral presentations, each group will prepare a written report (due October 30) that outlines, explains and justifies its redistricting plan. The report and presentation should address both the legal and political aspects of redistricting. In addition to the text, these reports should include a map of the districting plan, and a table with the totals, percentages and/or averages by district for the variables listed in Table 3: Uniform Redistricting Report. NOTE: Each member of a group will receive the same grade, so this work should be a true collaborative effort and every member of the group should contribute an equivalent amount of work. (In the event that one member of a group is not contributing equally, the other members should see me immediately.) However, a group may allocate its work in any way it chooses. For example, two people may focus on one issue, two people on another issue, etc. At a minimum, all members should participate in the oral presentation and, each group should review and discuss the final report together before turning it in. Groups: The six groups represent: 1) the Democratic Party, 2) the Republican Party, 3) the African American Coalition for Representation (AACR), 4) the Latino Election Council (LEC), 5) the Madisonian Public Interest Association (M-PIA), and 6) the Committee for Political Continuity (CPC). The AACR, LEC, M-PIA and CPC are hypothetical interest groups. The AACR seeks to protect and expand the political representation and power of African Americans, while LEC seeks to do so for Latinos. M-PIA is a group of activists who argue that Madison s anti-factional argument in Federalist #10 is the only sound basis for democratic representation. Finally, the CPC seeks to protect the ability of incumbent representatives to be re-elected. Consequently, the six groups have distinctly different goals for the redistricting of Texas. Each will attempt to convince the redistricting panel that their plan is the most appropriate one. The panel will take a number of factors into account including, but not Page 1

2 limited to, the equal population requirement, traditional districting principles, the Voting Rights Act, recent Supreme Court decisions, the political history and context of Texas, and the rights and interests of the people of the state. Background: Early in the 21 st century, Americans became completely revolted by their politicians, particularly their Congressional representatives. (Strangely, however, the public retained its faith in and support of the court system. You don t want to know what happened to President Jesse Ventura ) In an unprecedented Constitutional development, the House was dissolved and reconstituted as a much smaller assembly. The New House retained all of the old powers and functions of the old one. Likewise, all previously passed legislation, such as the Voting Rights Act, remains in force. Indeed, the only tangible change was a reduction in the number of representatives from most states. In Texas, for example, the number of Representatives was reduced to six, but they are still elected from single-member districts using a simple majority system. Unfortunately, the districts used for the first election under this new system are severely malapportioned (see Table 2). 1 Groups may use the existing districts as a starting point, or they may recreate a plan from scratch. Incumbents: The counties of residence and party affiliations of the current incumbents. District County Party District 1 Anderson County Republican District 2 Coke County Democrat District 3 Cass County Democrat District 4 Harris County Democrat District 5 Mills County Republican District 6 Bowie County Republican Data: The demographic data comes from the most recent Census, while the political data comes from a list of reliable registered voters. Variables: Table 1 lists all the variables in the data set and includes a brief explanation of each. You may not need to consider every variable listed for your redistricting plan. You may wish to transform or manipulate some of these variables. For example, if you are interested in family status, you could divide TOTPOP by HOUSUNIT, yielding the average number of people per housing unit, or HISPANIC by TOTPOP, yielding the proportion of Hispanics in a county s population. 1 The computer company in charge of the redistricting software, Macrosoft, was eventually convicted of fraud, and its chairman, Bill Bates, was forced to recount all of the state s ballots by hand. Page 2

3 Software and Data: MapInfo (for Macintosh): This software will be available on PUBLIC. Using the AppleShare function of the Chooser, open PUBLIC and the folders: Licensed Software» Key Server Controlled Software» No Support» MapInfo. You should transfer the MapInfo folder to your own hard drive rather than running it from the server. If you do not have a Macintosh or do not want to use your own computer, you can use MapInfo on the computers in the Social Science computing lab in the basement of Silsby Hall (open Sunday through Thursday between 2pm and 10pm.) Data: The data set for this exercise is available from the Geography 23 web page. Groups: Democratic Party Republican Party AACR Paul M Huelskamp Patrick C Pfeiffer John F Agan Daniel P Mitsui Reis L Alfond Daniel Lee Alexandra W Amrhein Lauren E Meldonian Alex Z Gelman William Fan Daniel F Cross-Call Todd B Whitehead Justin E Pratt Naomi M Shike Robert P LeGros LEC M-PIA CPC Jason K Lau Juan D Romera Bryce C LaPierre Nkese C Applewhite Cortland M Barnes David R Bradt Daniel J Simons Ariana E Alexander Jesse R Page-Adams Lindsay M Hirschfeld Haley R Peckett Margot B Shnayerson Adam D Ogusky Kathleen E Schoener Current Texas Redistricting Plan Page 3

4 Table 1: Redistricting Variables FIPS A Census code that identified each county COUNTY County name TOTALPOP Total population MALES Total number of males FEMALES Total number of females UNDER5 Total population under 5 years of age OVER65 Total population over 65 years of age VTINGAGE Total voting age population (18 or over) RACETOT1 Total number of people who marked only one racial category WHITE Total number of whites (one category) BLACK Total number of African Americans (one category) AMERINDN Total number of American Indians (one category) ASIAN Total number of Asians (one category) PACISLND Total number of Pacific Islanders (one category) OTHER Total number marking Other racial category (one category) MLTIRACE Total number marking more than one racial category HISPANIC Total number marking Hispanic/Latino WHITENH Total number of whites who are not Hispanic/Latino TOTHOUSE Total number of households HOUSE18 Total number of households with children under 18 HOUSE65 Total number of households with residents over 65 HOUSUNIT Total number of housing units OWNED Total number of owned housing units RENTED Total number of rented housing units INCOME Average income (per capita) REPUBLICAN Total number of Republic voters DEMOCRAT Total number of Democratic voters TOTVOTER Total number of voters PCREPUB Percentage of Republican voters PCDEMO Percentage of Democratic voters DISTRICT District number (1 through 6) Page 4

5 Table 2A: Basic Demographic Data by Population for Texas (Selected Variables) DISTRICT TOTALPOP VTINGAGE WHITE BLACK AMERINDN ASIAN STATE DISTRICT TOTALPOP PACISLND MLTIRACE HISPANIC WHITENH STATE DISTRICT TOTALPOP REPUBLICAN DEMOCRAT TOTVOTER STATE Page 5

6 Table 2A: Basic Demographic Data by Percentage for Texas (Selected Variables) DISTRICT TOTALPOP VTINGAGE WHITE BLACK AMERINDN ASIAN STATE DISTRICT TOTALPOP PACISLND MLTIRACE HISPANIC WHITENH STATE DISTRICT REPUBLICAN DEMOCRAT STATE Page 6

7 Table 3A: Uniform Redistricting Report (Totals) DISTRICT TOTALPOP VTINGAGE WHITE BLACK AMERINDN ASIAN DISTRICT PACISLND MLTIRACE HISPANIC WHITENH DISTRICT REPUBLICAN DEMOCRAT TOTVOTER Page 7

8 Table 3B: Uniform Redistricting Report (Percentages of Total State Population) DISTRICT TOTALPOP VTINGAGE WHITE BLACK AMERINDN ASIAN DISTRICT PACISLND MLTIRACE HISPANIC WHITENH DISTRICT REPUBLICAN DEMOCRAT TOTVOTER Page 8

9 Table 3C: Population Deviation Analysis Ideal District Population = 3,475,303 Total State Population = 20,851,820 DISTRICT TOTPOP DEVIATION* Total State Deviation** * District Deviation = (District Population - 3,475,303) / 3,475,303 * 100 ** Total State Deviation = (Largest District - Smallest District) / Total State Population *100 For example, under the old districting plan, DISTRICT TOTPOP DEVIATION 978, % And the total State deviation = (District 4 - District 6) / 20,851,820 = Total State Deviation 36.3% Page 9