Extreme Districts #1. Why we need to stop Gerrymandering

Hello! Welcome to the Extreme Districts dairy, here I am going to, with support of Dave’s Redistricting App, how and where can gerrymandering undermine voters, from either party, no matter which state it is.

Let’s start with MARYLAND, a Democratic stronghold, and one of the most gerrymandered states in US. In particular, Maryland 3rd district is, probably, the most gerrymandered district in the nation:

Because of gerrymandering (maybe), Democrats now control 7 out of 8 congressional districts, so I tried to create less weird-looking districts, and, of course flip the only Republican district to Democrats. the results were great: All districts are now looking like congressional districts, not ill dinosaurs and Republican 1st district is now Democratic. This is extreme Democratic version of Maryland districts:

1st District — Annapolis, Bowie

Currently, 1st district, which includes almost all Republican leaning areas in Maryland is now safe Democratic. I cut north and south of strongly Republican Delmarva peninsula and added urban Annapolis region and beyond. Obama carried it 60-38, so it will be an easy pick-up for Dems.

2nd District — Aberdeen, Edgewood, Baltimore

2nd district was a terrible, gerrymandered district, north of Baltimore. Now, it includes Northeast Baltimore and North of the Republican Delmarva peninsula and has a PVI index D+1, a drop from D+7.

3rd District — Baltimore, Greenbelt, Fort Meade

The famous 3rd congressional district of Maryland is now in a better shape, and actually a lot more Democratic than before. It now includes most of Baltimore and goes Southwest to Washington suburbs. Obama carried it 75-24.

4th District — Wheaton, Potomac, Rockville

4th district now includes only Washington suburbs, and is safe Democratic. Obama carried it 80-19.

5th District — Salisbury, St Charles

5th district was expanded to the south of Delmarva peninsula, and cut in the north, but still is a safe Democratic, which Obama carried 60-39.

6th District — Frederick, Hagerstown, Cumberland

6th district, that was the second Republican district before 2010 census redistricting, didn’t change much but now includes Democratic parts of Frederick and Montgomery counties. Obama took it 54-45, so it is likely to remain in Democrat’s hands.

7th District — Baltimore, Hampton

7th district, along with 4th was the most Democratic district in the state with Cook PVI D+23. Now, it includes north of Baltimore, and Republican north. Obama carried it 63-35, so it won’t be problem for Team Blue.

8th District — Ellicott City, Columbia

Based almost entirely in Republican northern part of Maryland, but because of Baltimore suburbs and Columbia is still Democratic — 55-44 for Obama.

Creating Republican-leaning map I tried to pack Democratic voters in as few districts as possible. Finally, I got 3 districts, where McCain won popular vote (1st, 6th, 7th) and one district Obama won by only 3 points (5th). the other 4 are urban Democratic districts, where Obama won 70+% of the vote. That means, that Republicans can have up to 4 districts, so 50% in states where they get 35% of the vote.

Thank you for reading this, I plan to do dairies like this for every state. Next time I plan to focus on some small new England states.