The People’s Maps Submitted to the LRC

On November 10, the final People’s Maps were shared with the Legislative Reapportionment Commission. These maps are the product of countless rounds of review and revision, incorporating public testimony, input from feedback forms, and dozens of large and small community mapping conversations. The goal is to demonstrate that regular people can balance priorities, gather input and create maps that make sense and provide fair outcomes for ALL the people of Pennsylvania.

Some highlights:

• Far fewer divided counties and municipalities.
• Far better metrics on compactness.
• Six more minority/majority districts than the existing PA House map had when it was drawn in 2012.
• Many minority opportunity and influence districts in parts of the commonwealth where Black and Brown populations don’t meet levels needed for majority/minority districts.
• Inclusion of 8 Unity districts, created by PA Voice partners working with community organizations in Pittsburgh, York, Reading, Lancaster and Philadelphia.
• Attention to PA geography, including rivers, roads and ridges.
• Significant effort to keep school districts as intact as possible and avoid dividing college campuses.
• Partisan bias scores that predict majoritarian outcomes, allowing voters’ voices to be heard locally, but also on a statewide level.

No map is perfect. Given Pennsylvania’s geography and strangely shaped cities and counties, many districts don’t have smooth edges or fall into neat rectangular shapes. Many school districts, even some municipalities, cross county lines. Districts in populous areas will be geographically small, while those in more rural areas may cover multiple counties.

Every line is a decision and every district involves tradeoffs. Our goal was to meet median metrics for essential legal requirements (compactness, contiguity, minimal splits, minority representation, and lack of partisan bias), while incorporating LACRA safeguards and community input.

Peoples Map Metrics

As seen in Dave’s Redistricting App (Latest adjusted data used for People’s Maps; 2010 Data used for Current House and Senate)

	Compactness	Minimized Splits	Minority Representation	Number of Majority/Minority Districts	Population Deviation
	Higher is better: Range to 100			Total #	Legal Precedent Allows 10
Current Senate Map	41	38	53	5	7.96
People’s Senate Map	62	77	61	5	4.98
Current House Map	45	40	65	23	7.88
People’s House Map	64	76	68	29	8.04

Take a look. We’re proud of our mappers, proud of our maps, and invite the Legislative Reapportionment Commission to consider them as they prepare their own maps for use for the next decade.

EXPLORE PA PEOPLE’S MAPS

Read about our Maps and Process

View the PA People's House Map

View the PA People's Senate Map

LIKE WHAT YOU SEE?

Tell the LRC!

Offer comment on the Legislative Reapportionment Commission comment page. Tell them where you live and what aspects of the People’s Maps (and mapping process!) you’d like to see duplicated in the commission’s final maps.