Virginia Redistricting Competition

March 23, 2011

The Virginia Redistricting Competition announced its winners yesterday and William and Mary Law School team won the Congressional Governor/Commission division!  W&M Law also took home a second place finish for its state senate map in the Competition division!  W&M Law narratives describing decisions behind the map also received distinction from the judges, saying the W&M Law narratives “set the standard” for the competition.  Go W&M Law!!

We spent many hours staring at maps and working to draw lines that met the criteria of the competition along with what the law requires.  Focusing on compactness, contiguity, communities of interest, and equipopulation, the team’s goal was to draw lines that made logical sense.  The team was open to all students, but we ended up with only one student from Virginia.  This proved to be somewhat of an advantage in the sense of we were not aware of current partisan politics and drew lines without knowing where incumbents lived.  For a second category, the competitiveness factor was added where we attempted to make districts as politically competitive as possible, again not taking incumbency into consideration.

Overall, we achieved what we set out to do – draw maps that make logical sense, relying on redistricting case law.  Congratulations to the entire team!

The full results of the Competition are available here.