Midwest Redistricting: Get to Know Your District
Get to Know Your District
Midwest Democracy Network and its partners closely monitored the legislative redistricting processes across the region between 2010 and 2012 and advocated for an open process and equitable results. A frequent concern was lack of online access to new district maps.
Get to Know Your District collects the congressional and state legislative maps created Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin in one easy-to-use tool. The final products of the redistricting process are now more accessible to the people the new maps directly impact, complete with demographics and other features. (more information here). Check out the maps below
State Maps
Illinois – Illinois Democrats had complete control over the redistricting process, and drew districts that are believed to heavily favor the party. National outlets look at Illinois as a prime pick-up opportunity for the Democratic Party, a contrast to other Midwest states, which have solidified recent Republican gains.
Indiana – Republicans controlled the process in Indiana. They took the suggestion of the Indiana Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw legislative House districts without consideration of incumbents but did not adopt this guideline for drawing state Senate maps.
Michigan – Michigan maps were drawn by the Republican legislature. A college Republican leader drew the winning map in a competition which led a Detroit Free Press columnist to write: “A college kid showed us how. Now we just need the Legislature to pay attention.”
Minnesota – The only state in the region where maps were drawn by a non-legislative body. The state’s Democratic Farmer-Labor governor veto of maps passed by the Republican legislature triggered a backup process whereby a special judicial panel drew maps instead. Maps are believed to be more “fair” and partisan neutral than those created in other Midwest states.
Ohio – Legislative district maps in Ohio were approved by the state Apportionment Board (which is made up the Governor, Secretary of State, and Auditor - all Republicans - along with a Democratic and Republican member of the legislature). Congressional maps were drawn by the Republican controlled legislature. The congressional map scored lower than all 53 maps submitted in a competition organized by the Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting.
Wisconsin – Republicans in Wisconsin changed the redistricting process to enable adopting state and congressional level maps before counties and wards and in advance of recall elections. Wisconsin’s rushed process included Republican legislators taking secrecy oaths before they could review maps.
Select map
Click on the drop down menu to select the map you would like to view. Each state has US Congressional, state senate, and state house/assembly districts. (Note: The default map shown on each page is the state house/assembly map)
Enter Address
Find your spot on the map by entering your address
View district demographics
After you have selected a map to view, zoom in or out and click on a district to view demographics (different states provide different demographic information based on data available)
View demographics statewide
Select an option to view those demographics in a shaded, statewide map.
Overlay
After selecting a map from the drop down menu, select a map to overlay the first map you chose. The second map will be shown in red lines.
Check out the past redistricting work done by Midwest Democracy Network’s partners by visiting Draw the Line Midwest, which contains archived news stories, reports, and other information.
Keep up with current redistricting news through Midwest Democracy Network’s redistricting news section.
Midwest Democracy Network would like to thank John Jiang of TargetGIS.
This project was made possible thanks to generous funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
