However, let's take what he's done and see what the results would be. Results, BTW, that AREN'T quoted in that story (possibly because they undermine the very foundation upon which the story is based?).
I'll use Louisiana, because I'm most familiar with it. BTW, don't know if I mentioned this, but I did participate in several redistricting meetings with both legislative and DoJ people to talk about redistricting. Did you know that they (both groups) actually DO use algorithms to come up with basic shapes, then modify those shapes to reflect real-world people?
Here's the Olson LA map, along with the voter breakdown:
And here is the current map:
The Olson one sure looks better! But, how do the demographics break down?
Uh oh. With the current map, there is at least 1 majority-minority district (the green one, which encompasses the metro-center of New Orleans, along with a band of minority voters going up the Mississippi river). However, under Olson, there is no such district. However, the purple district is really close to being 50/50. And, a lot of white people vote democrat, right? So, perhaps, when all the votes are tallied, this district would reliably go Democrat, so as to give some representation to minorities.
That purple area encompasses the parishes of Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, and the Slidell-area of St. Tammany Parish. Reviewing the parish-by-parish (and precinct-by-precinct results for St. Tammany) results from the 2014 Congressional election, we get the following numbers, based upon LA Sec of State results.
Yep, just as I feared. The Republican wins this race. So, we've now done away with the only district that even had a close-to-even racial breakdown, and given it over to the GOP. So, now we've got all older white men representing a state that has the 2nd highest black population in the country.
And, just so you know . . . when 2010 redistricting came along, several different maps were considered. The problem was that, post-Katrina, there was not enough of a population base in New Orleans to contain its own district. Therefore, additional districts had to be added. But, NO is surrounded by predominantly-white suburbs. So, both Republicans AND Democrats submitted proposals that were deemed by the DoJ to comply with the regulations, and both of which had similar boundaries for the majority-minority district.
Here's a quick primer on the process:
ftp://legisftp.legis.state.la.us/
The proposed maps:
http://house.louisiana.gov/H_Redistrict ... ngress.htm
And, a summary of the impact of redistricting upon minorities:
ftp://legisftp.legis.state.la.us/06%20S ... Impact.pdf
