Now, new, easy-to-use and freely-available software enables citizens to design maps and to submit these to the state legislature for adoption consideration. This software promises to usher in a new era of greater public input into the redistricting process

To foster awareness of the new opportunities available to become involved in the redistricting process, the Center for Electoral Politics at Fordham University and the Public Mapping Project have launched the “2012 New York Redistricting Project.” The initiative is generously funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The Competition

As part of the project, we sponsored a student competition. We challenged teams of students representing New York colleges and universities to design New York State’s congressional and state legislative districts. The mission of the competition was to build public awareness about redistricting in New York and to facilitate hands-on experience in using the available software tools. Students produced Congressional and state legislative redistricting plans that were judged upon the 

following criteria: contiguity; compactness; equal in population; in compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act; encompassing communities of interest; and respect for existing political subdivisions. Also each team was required to submit a detailed narrative justification for their map. An award of $1,000 was issued to the teams that produced the winning Congressional and State Senate plans. An Honorable Mention was awarded to the best Assembly submission, as judged by a panel of redistricting experts. 

The Workshops

Another major aspect of the 2012 New York Redistricting Project was the series of workshops the project either sponsored or co-sponsored at different universities and institutions across New York. They featured a panel discussion as well as a demonstration of the free mapping software, District Builder. We are very pleased with the amount of individuals we were able to directly introduce to the software. We are also grateful to the panelists who made presentations at our events and hopeful for more cooperation in the future as New Yorkers continue to engage the issue of redistricting. A special thanks also goes out to our co-sponsors and hosts. Without them, the workshops would not have been possible. Workshop information, including the dates, panelists and locations can be found here.

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