LRC Testimony Solutions - Consolidated (all)
View Map on Dave's Redistricting (https://davesredistricting.org/join/1fe3194a-1068-4c59-ac51-2bfa735fa26b)
The goal of this map is to address the most common and persuasive themes from citizen testimony, LRC submissions, and other public comment related to the LRC’s Draft Plan for the lower chamber of the General Assembly. The map consolidates amendments proposed in a series of maps entitled “LRC Testimony Solutions”, which have been posted previously to the LRC portal. Additionally, the map incorporates changes to the southeastern corner of the Commonwealth, proposed by Dr. Carol Kuniholm in her recent LRC testimony and reflected in her submission at: https://www.redistricting.state.pa.us/comment/submission/1993. I am indebted to Dr. Kuniholm for shouldering the most difficult part of this work. The citizen demands addressed by this map include, among others: 1. Separation of Cumberland and Dauphin Counties; 2. Additional majority-minority and minority-opportunity districts; 3. Reunification of Juniata and Mifflin Counties, and of Union and Snyder Counties, to the extent possible within population limits; 4. Reduction of municipal divisions in Scranton from four districts to two; 5. Rationalization of boundaries, to align with school districts and other interests, in: * Allegheny County, flanking the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers * Montgomery County, notably in the Horsham area * Northwest Philadelphia and other neighborhoods throughout the city * Dauphin County * Delaware County, around Middletown Township * Chester County, particularly the Coatesville area * Lancaster County * Adams County * Lycoming County (including the eradication of alleged gerrymandering in HD84) * Centre County. Dr. Kuniholm has meticulously translated citizen input into modifications in Chester, Berks, Lehigh, Northampton, Bucks, Philadelphia, and eastern Delaware Counties. This combined map adopts her changes to those counties verbatim, except to harmonize overlapping edits in Berks and Schuylkill Counties. These changes augment the modest Republican lean of LRC Draft. Per DRA, seats bias rises from 2.20% to 2.66%, and votes bias from 1.22% to 1.37%. Accordingly, the partisan bias reduction index falls from 72 to 68. Core metrics are generally stable. All measures of compactness improve. One additional county is split; total county splits are unchanged, at 184. The Minority Representation score falls three points because certain districts drop below VAP thresholds utilized by DRA. For reference, the prior "Solutions" posts harmonized here include: https://www.redistricting.state.pa.us/comment/submission/1993 (Dr. Kuniholm's map) https://www.redistricting.state.pa.us/comment/submission/2517 https://www.redistricting.state.pa.us/comment/submission/2546 https://www.redistricting.state.pa.us/comment/submission/2587 https://www.redistricting.state.pa.us/comment/submission/2595 https://www.redistricting.state.pa.us/comment/submission/2623 https://www.redistricting.state.pa.us/comment/submission/2657 https://www.redistricting.state.pa.us/comment/submission/3212 Many thanks as always to the Commission for your work on our behalf.