Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Cohort
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. PA Redistricting Cohort Link to proposed districts: https://davesredistricting.org/join/37a0643c-c076-4f82-a8e0-5249ffaa6ba3 Current Senate The Senate is currently cracked and packed and there is only one (1) district between 30-50% minority population (District 1). This could be explained if the Senate was increasing Minority-Majority districts, but only 10% of districts are Minority-Majority. At the 2010 census, 18% of PA was counted as ethnic minorities. In 2020, the census indicated that PA’s ethnic minority population rose to 25%. When our districts do not take into account ethnicity, we ignore 1 out of 4 Pennsylvanians. These district suggestions aim to correct ethnic gerrymandering, while keeping districts compact, contiguous, equal population, and minimizing splits in counties and municipalities. These suggested districts cover all of Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Berks counties, as well as Dauphin and Lebanon. It also includes parts of Cumberland county, Lancaster county, Luzerne county, the Lehigh Valley area, and Allegheny county. Focusing on increasing minority representation, also often increased compactness in the following districts (listed with counties): • Districts 2, 3, 4, 5 (Philadelphia) • Districts 7, 17 (Philadelphia, Montgomery, Chester) • District 26 (Delaware/Chester/Philadelphia) • District 19 (Chester) • District 18 (Lehigh Valley) • District 14 (Luzerne) • District 15 (Dauphin, Cumberland) • District 36 (Lancaster) • District 42 (Allegheny) When we show how to make these districts represent minorities better; this actually can increase the compactness and proportionality of the whole map. The map shows filled in the districts of the surrounding areas in Southeastern PA with new versions of Districts 1, 6, 10, 12, 13, 16, 24, 44 and 48. The exception is District 16, and all districts edited are at least as compact as before. Most are more compact. This map has fewer county splits for the corresponding districts. (All district numbers were kept the same for the general areas covered.) Here is a comparison of these districts with the current districts of the same areas: Green: districts increased in minority representation > 7% (PA’s minority population rose by 7% in the last census count) Yellow: districts where I focused on compactness when minority-heavy areas were packed or cracked. Dark orange: Black-majority district. Light orange: Majority-minority district Gray: Minority pop. between 30-50% Other districts are included here because they were in the same area and shifted some territory with the other districts. District This map Current Senate 1 34.67% 34.11% 2 71.60% 56.41% 3 70.64% 83.80% 4 65.72% 56.89% 5 43.69% 29.21% 6 31.25% 15.16% 7 54.86% 59.09% 8 71.13% 73.39% †9 16.32% 22.57% 10 15.73% 9.10% 12 23.36% 14.79% 13 11.19% 19.12% 14 22.54% 10.14% 15 38.95% 22.89% 16 47.33% 26.31% 17 29.53% 21.68% 18 21.64% 19.77% 19 26.28% 20.70% 24 12.13% 10.77% †26 43.78% 20.63% 36 26.21% 6.44% 42 45.70% 22.62% 44 17.89% 11.46% 48 14.70% 13.34% †District 9’s minority population is decreased so that the minority population in Distrct 26 can be over 40%. Like the current map, this one has 10% Minority-Majority districts. But it has five additional districts with 30-50% Minorities in the Voting Age Population (three in the 40-percentile, 2 in the 30 percentile). District 1, which currently has about 34% Minority population, stays nearly the same. This map also decreases ethnic packing in non-compact districts whose contours decreased the ability for minorities to hold power in neighboring districts (District 2, 3, 14 and 17). To achieve these results, 6 districts have decreased their minority representation so that another 15 districts in Southeastern PA could increase their minority representation. All districts keep current incumbents in their districts (data from election committee records: Data from https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/ElectionInfo). At least five districts are more competitive than before and could lead to incumbents losing elections (15, 6, 16, 18, 14). One of these is Democrat, four are Republican. In general, these edits move incumbents toward the center of their districts, not the outskirts. Districts outside southeast PA Lehigh Valley – Districts 16 and 18: The current district 18 combines Bethlehem and Easton. In this map, District 16 instead combines Allentown and Bethlehem. District 18 includes Easton and wraps around the other two cities. This was done because District 16 now is nearly a Majority-Minority district, with 47.33% of the voting age population. Allegheny County – District 42: This district aims to include the areas of Allegheny County with the highest minority populations. It only splits two municipalities - Pittsburgh, and Penn Hills. It is likely that Pittsburgh would need to be divided between several districts with this set-up, but given that Pittsburgh is divided into so many self-sustained neighborhoods and that many of the suburbs function as part of the life of the greater city, the thought behind this division held communities of interest across the region better. District 42 gives a minority voting age population of 45.70%. Harrisburg area – District 15: This district has been reshaped to be more compact and include the immediate Capital region in Dauphin County, as well as some of the immediate suburbs of Cumberland County. District 15’s minority population jumps from 22% to 38% with this reorganization. This dips into a small piece of the current District 31, which only has an 8.7% minority population. Doing this also makes District 48 more compact, including the remainder of Dauphin County and Eastern Perry County. Lancaster area – District 36: With Lancaster’s growth, a third district needed to be added to Lancaster County. The priority was keeping Lancaster city with the northwest section of the County, which both overall have higher minority populations than the rest of the county. This move accounts for a lower ethnic representation in District 13 (southern Lancaster County and western Chester County). Yet, the percentage of minority representation in this new District 36 alone is still higher than the current minority representation in both District 13 and 36 combined! Wilkes-Barre area – District 14: This district was not at all compact, with 14 and 20 circling around one another, in what looks like an attempt to keep the Wilkes-Barre area from staying compact. This change more than doubles the current minority population from 10% to 22%!