Some Tools for Redistricting Analysis: PA House
I have prepared a report that addresses some of the potential weaknesses of the Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission (LRC) Preliminary Plan (the Plan) for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives released on December 16, 2021. It lists several specific districts as candidates for modification to improve the Plan from the perspective of its compliance with required features and from the perspective of incumbency. It also characterizes some region-level imbalances that the LRC might mitigate to improve its acceptance statewide. In the process, the report uses some analytical perspectives and provides some analytical tools that could aid the LRC in its final design adjustments by looking at key design criteria: • The analysis focuses on five required and preferred characteristics of the Plan that highlight some potential weaknesses that might strengthen any legal challenges. It lists district outliers and maximally affected political subdivisions identified by ranking metrics for five characteristics we deem critical for a politically palatable, fair, judicially reviewable, and judicially enforceable districting design evaluation. • The tools include graphical diagrams, color-coded maps, and some new quantitative metrics that help to highlight the interplay of design constraints, to uncover unrecognized regional biases, and to measure some new stakeholder preferences. I hope this analysis will help the LRC as is prepares its final House districting Plan. The link to the report is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zG7k5arN5QImormHu3PGrFAe7RRgPMWO/view?usp=sharing