MapLab: New Map Tools Make Redistricting More Accessible

For the relative few who are aware of redistricting in the U.S. — in which each state redraws the lines that define congressional and state legislative districts once per decade — it’s an even smaller subset that know the public can participate. It’s a smaller number still who actually choose to do so — for example, by submitting their own maps showing how they believe their communities ought to be represented.

In fact, up until about a decade ago, it was virtually impossible for most people to make such cartographic arguments that cogently balance population, contiguity and other values such as racial equity or partisan fairness (or their opposite, gerrymandering) across districts. But the explosion in GIS and open-source software has opened the door to tools like DistrictBuilder, a platform that all but foolproofs the process of creating your own district map for any state in the U.S.