METHODOLOGY
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There’s a lot of complaining about gerrymandering, but what should districts look like? We went back to the drawing board and drew a set of alternative congressional maps for the entire country. Each map has a different goal: One is designed to encourage competitive elections, for example, and another to maximize the number of majority-minority districts. See how changes to district boundaries could radically alter the partisan and racial makeup of the U.S. House — without a single voter moving or switching parties. How we did this »
Show current district boundaries
Gerrymander districts to favor Republicans
Gerrymander districts to favor Democrats
Match partisan breakdown of seats to electorate
Promote highly competitive elections
Maximize number of majority-minority districts
Make district shapes compact (using an algorithm)
Make districts compact while following county borders
← National map
Chance of being represented by either party
Usually Democratic districts | Highly competitive districts | Usually Republican districts | |
---|---|---|---|
Current |
Usually Democratic districts | Highly competitive districts | Usually Republican districts | |
---|---|---|---|
Current |
Party probabilities
Every district by the chance it will be represented by either party
Democratic gerrymander | ||
Current | ||
Proportionally partisan | ||
Compact (borders) | ||
Majority minority | ||
Highly competitive | ||
Compact (algorithmic) | ||
Republican gerrymander |
How the maps compare on district competitiveness, minority makeup, respect for local borders, compactness and the efficiency gap, an attempt to gauge how politically gerrymandered a set of districts is
Compact (borders) | R+3% |
Competitive | R+3% |
Proportional | R+5% |
Current | R+5% |
Dem. gerrymander | D+5% |
Majority minority | R+6% |
Compact (algorithmic) | R+8% |
GOP gerrymander | R+22% |
Competitive | 17 |
Compact (borders) | 9 |
Compact (algorithmic) | 7 |
Current | 5 |
Proportional | 5 |
Majority minority | 4 |
GOP gerrymander | 2 |
Dem. gerrymander | 1 |
Majority minority | 11 |
Current | 7 |
Proportional | 7 |
GOP gerrymander | 7 |
Compact (borders) | 7 |
Compact (algorithmic) | 6 |
Competitive | 6 |
Dem. gerrymander | 5 |
Compact (borders) | 26 |
Proportional | 32 |
Current | 32 |
Competitive | 40 |
Majority minority | 42 |
GOP gerrymander | 43 |
Dem. gerrymander | 60 |
Compact (algorithmic) | 71 |
Compact (borders) | 1 |
Compact (algorithmic) | 2 |
Competitive | 3 |
Proportional | 4 |
Current | 4 |
GOP gerrymander | 6 |
Majority minority | 7 |
Dem. gerrymander | 8 |
The racial or ethnic makeup of each district and each district’s likelihood of being represented by a member of a racial or ethnic minority, based on election results since 2006
Share of population by race | Chance of being represented by a ... | Chance of being represented by a ... | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
District | District | Majority Race | 0% 50% 100% | Minority member | Democrat | Republican | ||||
1st | White | 2% | <1% | >99% | ||||||
2nd | White | 2% | <1% | >99% | ||||||
3rd | White | 3% | 5% | 95% | ||||||
4th | White | 1% | <1% | >99% | ||||||
5th | Minority coalition | 70% | 98% | 2% | ||||||
6th | White | 2% | 10% | 90% | ||||||
7th | White | 6% | 53% | 47% | ||||||
8th | White | 2% | 4% | 96% | ||||||
9th | White | 22% | 82% | 18% | ||||||
10th | Minority coalition | 25% | 97% | 3% | ||||||
11th | White | 1% | 1% | 99% | ||||||
12th | White | 1% | 7% | 93% | ||||||
13th | White | 3% | 65% | 35% | ||||||
14th | White | 19% | 90% | 10% | ||||||
15th | White | 5% | 16% | 84% | ||||||
16th | White | 2% | 12% | 88% | ||||||
17th | White | 2% | 2% | 98% | ||||||
18th | White | 3% | 19% | 81% | ||||||
19th | White | 2% | 2% | 98% | ||||||
20th | Minority coalition | 91% | >99% | <1% | ||||||
21st | White | 9% | 94% | 6% | ||||||
22nd | White | 7% | 86% | 14% | ||||||
23rd | White | 27% | 97% | 3% | ||||||
24th | Minority coalition | 92% | >99% | <1% | ||||||
25th | Hispanic/ Latino | 86% | 21% | 79% | ||||||
26th | Hispanic/ Latino | 87% | 84% | 16% | ||||||
27th | Hispanic/ Latino | 85% | 83% | 17% |
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