Resources
Press
Why North Carolina Democrats Should Fight Gerrymandering Using State Law
The Washington Post (2018)
The Gerrymander Battles Loom, as G.O.P. Looks to Press Its Advantage
Sam Wang and Jonathan Cervas are quoted.
In redistricting, algorithms can’t replace communities
Raleigh News & Observer (2019)
Let Math Save Our Democracy
The New York Times (2015)
How the Courts Can Objectively Measure Gerrymandering
The Atlantic (2019)
One Way To Spot A Partisan Gerrymander
FiveThirtyEight (2019)
The ‘Blue Wave’ Wasn’t Enough to Overcome Republican Gerrymanders
The New York Times (2018)
The Great Gerrymander of 2012
The New York Times (2013)
If the Supreme Court Won’t Prevent Gerrymandering, Who Will?
The New York Times (2019)
Slaying the Partisan Gerrymander
The American Prospect (2017)
Census delay sends redistricting ripples nationwide
Jason Rhode and Sandra Chen are quoted.
North Carolina Court Beats Back Extreme Partisan Gerrymandering
uPolitics (2020)
Let’s not guarantee that communities of color must wait 2 years for fair representation
NJ.com (2020)
The Long-Term Solution to Voter Suppression
The Atlantic (2018)
Can Open Data Save Redistricting Reform?
The American Prospect (2018)
Virginia was home to the first gerrymander. It should also be the home of its solution.
Richmond Times-Dispatch (2020)
If SCOTUS Refuses to Act on Partisan Gerrymandering, State Supreme Courts Offer a Path to Reform
Slate (2019)
Lawmakers Should Fix Inequitable District Lines
The Virginian-Pilot (2018). More detail here.
Can Math Stop Partisan Gerrymandering?
The Los Angeles Times (2017)
How Gerrymandering Reform Can Win in the States
The American Prospect (2018)
Data & Code (PGP)
OpenPrecincts
A collaborative project to collect precinct geographies and election data from across all 50 states, D.C., and the five U.S. territories, to empower citizens in advance of the 2021 redistricting.
Gerrymandering Test Code (MATLAB)
Run the three gerrymandering tests presented on this site, and replicate the analyses reported in Three Tests for Practical Evaluation of Partisan Gerrymandering.
Virginia precincts and demonstrative map
Contains relevant precinct-level results and a demonstrative map for undoing the racially gerrymandered districts in the southeastern corner of Virginia. More detail at our GitHub repository.
Gerrymandering Test Code (Python)
Run the three gerrymandering tests presented on this site, as well as several other common gerrymandering metrics.
Geoprocessing Code
A loose collection of utilities for various geoprocessing operations that are common in the study of redistricting. Work in progress.
State Legislative Election Results, 1971–2018
Contains the results of over 80,000 single-member state legislative election from 1971 to 2016.
Congressional Election Results, 1948–2018
Cleaned results of each Congressional election from 1948 to 2016.
Useful Links
Representable
A community of interest mapping tool created by a team of Princeton undergraduates with help from PGP.
Runaway Redistricting: How the Rush to Redistricting Can Leave Communities Behind
With the adjusted census timeline, states will receive population data needed for redistricting several months later than in previous census cycles. Common Cause details, in this report, the likely impact of this new schedule; in addition to recommendations for ensuring a transparent and inclusive redistricting process.
Extreme Maps
A 2017 report by the Brennan Center on the district maps produced in the 2011 redistricting cycle.
Dave's Redistricting App
A free-to-use, public software for drawing and analyzing state legislative and congressional district plans.
All About Redistricting
A great resource maintained by Justin Levitt. Go here to find out, for instance, which parties controlled redistricting for various states in various years.
Districtr
A free-to-use, public software created by the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group for drawing state legislative and congressional district plans as well as communities.
The State of Redistricting Litigation
A tracker updated by the Brennan Center.
How Changes to the 2020 Census Timeline Will Impact Redistricting
A comprehensive analysis by the Brennan Center of how possible census delays will affect redistricting in 2020.
PlanScore
Visualize the efficiency gap across time, and upload custom district plans for analysis.
Scholarly Work
Three Tests for the Practical Evaluation of Partisan Gerrymandering
Stanford Law Review (2016)
An Antidote for Gobbledygook: Organizing the Judge's Partisan Gerrymandering Toolkit into a Two-Part Framework
Election Law Journal (2018). See also our associated post at the Harvard Law Review Blog.
Bethune-Hill v. Va. State Bd. of Elections Amicus Brief
Eastern District of Virginia, 2018
Laboratories of Democracy Reform: State Constitutions and Partisan Gerrymandering
Univ. of Penn., 22 J. of Const. Law 203 (2019)
Improving New Jersey's Legislative Apportionment Process
Monmouth University Polling Institute
Rucho v. Common Cause Amicus Brief
Supreme Court of the United States, 2019
Three Practical Tests for Gerrymandering: Application to Maryland and Wisconsin
Election Law Journal (2016)
Gill v. Whitford Amicus Brief (SCOTUS 2017)
Supreme Court of the United States, 2017
Harris v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission Amicus Brief (SCOTUS 2015)
Supreme Court of the United States, 2015
Data & Code (Non-PGP)
State Legislative Election Results
Carl Klarner's collection of state legislature elections from 1967–2016.
Daily Kos Elections Data
Daily Kos Elections maintains an archive of useful data on recent elections, including presidential election results by Congressional and State Legislative district, district maps, demographic information, and much more.
redist
Code by Ben Fifield et al. to generate hundreds of thousands of alternative district plans.
Elections Geodata
An open-source effort to collect precinct-level geographic shapefiles.
Markov chain district sampler
C++ code by Wes Pegden et al. to sample among many similar district maps in order to determine if a map is highly unusual.
OpenElections
An open-source effort to collect precinct-level election results.
GerryChain
Python code by the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group at Tufts to generate alternative districting plans.