Earlier this month, after years of litigation, a federal judge in Alabama ordered a new state senate map. In a surprising decision, the map she chose wasn’t one drafted by a court-appointed special master and his expert cartographer, but rather one that had been submitted by an anonymous member of the public, known only by their initials, “DD”.
The decision stunned “DD” – an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Alabama named Daniel DiDonato – who learned his map had been selected as he was preparing to leave for his 9.30am introduction to political science class.
“I was absolutely surprised,” he said in an interview. “Now, nearly 300,000 Alabamians will be voting under new district lines that I drew up at two in the morning in a dorm, a cramped dorm study room.”
While it would be better if his map had resulted in even stronger Black representation, he appears to have been the only one who followed the assignment, which was to remedy the original racism with the fewest changes to the districts. And he paid attention to proportions so that a voter in any district has an equal fraction of representation.
Alternate story: Trump judge said the previous lines were too egregious to be legal, but then chose the most conservative map presented by the Special Master.
The kid based his map on the racially gerrymandered map and turned off racial considerations in the redesign. The map minimally tweaked a racial gerrymander, but because he didn’t use racism in his tweak he thinks it’s not racially gerrymandered. Garbage in, garbage out.
… one that had been submitted by an anonymous member of the public, known only by their initials, “DD”.
The decision stunned “DD” – an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Alabama named Daniel DiDonato …
“Anonymous”?
Should have said it was submitted anonymously.
Should be “formerly unknown”
Formerly known as anonymous?
The hacker ?
Doesn’t matter, our only choices are BlueMAGA or RedMAGA
For fuck’s sake.
Can we please defederate from ml?
Why? OH
.world
Another .world liberal that just wants an echo chamber, cant be havin that wall of empire propaganda getting a crack in it now can we LMBO!
A
teenageralgorithmDoes that make it bad?
It makes the headline descriptive, even relative to the content of the piece.
DiDonato’s success underscores how the wide availability of redistricting data and mapping software has transformed mapmaking from something once reserved for supercomputers and backrooms to an activity that anyone can participate in.
I think it would be a good thing to provide people with access to mapping software that can plan redistricting in a fair way, or expose the way someone is doing it unfairly with evidence.
Since the teenager did the work of assembling the info, I think the headline is fine. Do I have to give credit to a calculator because I suck at math?
mapping software that can plan redistricting in a fair way
I mean, fairness is heavily predicated on your end goals. Even then, while I find the software fascinating and I’m glad it exists, I don’t see a huge strategic benefit in people wishcasting districts their states won’t let them have.
The other big lead-bury on this headline is the degree to which the courts have been wrangling over district maps for decades. This map is just the latest selected to rebalance Alabama and there’s little reason to believe it will stick
Well, there shouldn’t be districts anyway. It should just all be popular vote. But that’s a whole other topic.
Well, there shouldn’t be districts anyway.
Hard truths
So you’re saying everyone else who used the same tool got identical results to his plan?
I’d need to know more about the tool
Well you seem to think you know enough to state that it was definitely the tool and not the teen and that your interpretation would be the more descriptive and accurate headline.
it was definitely the tool and not the teen
Maybe some kind of combination?
So go look for the info. I mean you have the world at your fingertips right now.
I’ll see if I can peel off some free time later in the day.
