Alternative Districts: Delaware State House of Representatives
Below you'll find my alternative to the Delaware State house of Representatives district map. As with all of my maps, certain criteria are considered including: compactness, coalescing communities of interest including large minority voting blocs, and respecting political boundaries. Recreating the actual map using Dave’s Redistricting App was not practical since too many districts couldn’t be drawn to match exactly, which caused discrepancies that had significant effects on district demographics. The presentation will resemble the previous diary, however, these descriptions will only include key municipalities within each district. The district numbering keeps to the previous numbering as closely as possible.
New Castle 1-10, 12, 13, 15-19, 21-28
1st. Bellefonte, Edgemoor, Wilmington (part)
2nd. Wilmington (part)
3rd. Wilmington (part)
4th. Elsmere
5th. Central New Castle County
6th. Claymont
7th. Northern New Castle County
8th. Middletown, Townsend
9th. Delaware City, Odessa
10th. Arden, Ardencroft, Ardentown, Northern New Castle County
12th. Hockessin (part), Monroe Park
13th. Newport (part), Wilmington Manor (part)
15th. Bear (part), Glasgow (part)
16th. Wilmington (part)
17th. New Castle, Wilmington Manor (part)
18th. Central New Castle County
19th. Pine Creek (part), Pine Creek Valley (part)
21st. Hockessin (part), Pine Creek (part)
22nd. Newark (part), Northstar
23rd. Newark (part)
24th. Central New Castle County
25th. Brookside, Newark (part)
26th. Bear (part)
27th. Glasgow (part), West-Central New Castle County
28th. Clayton (part), Smyrna (part), South-East New Castle County
Kent 11, 29-34
11th. Cheswold, Clayton (part), Hartly, Kenton,
29th. Camden (part), Dover (part), Wyoming
30th. Farmington, Harrington, Houston, Milford (part)
31st. Dover (part)
32nd. Dover (part)
33rd. Bowers, Dover (part), Frederica, Leipsic, Little Creek, Magnolia, Smyrna (part)
34th. Camden (part), Felton, Viola, Woodside
Sussex 14, 20, 35-41
14th. Henlopen Acres, Lewes, Rehoboth Beach
20th. East-Central Sussex County
35th. Bridgeville, Greenwood, Milford (part)
36th. Ellendale, Milford (part), Milton, Slaughter Beach
37th. Dagsboro, Millsboro (part)
38th. Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island, Millville, Ocean View, Selbyville (part), South Bethany
39th. Georgetown, Seaford (part)
40th. Bethel, Blades, Laurel, Seaford (part)
41st. Delmar, Frankford, Millsboro (part), Selbyville (part)
My version of the Delaware State House of Representatives presents an alternative to the current plan. The districts seen here respect communities of interest and political boundaries in a relatively compact manner. Also, there are seven districts in my version that have large Black voting blocs: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 16th, 26th, and 31st. This is slight overall improvement compared to the actual map. Ultimately, while the map may have been drawn by Democrats, the state’s Democratic leanings would keep the nearly 2 to 1 advantage in their favor, even under an alternative plan.
The maps were created using Dave’s Redistricting App: gardow.com/…
2016 Election Results were acquired via Dave’s Redistricting App 2020 update
The charts and data were assembled using spreadsheets via Stephen Wolf’s guide: www.dailykos.com/…
The Statistical Atlas was used to match the district numbering: statisticalatlas.com/…
Link to the Delaware Senate Map
Alternative Districts: Delaware State Senate