[EL] Query - Counties and Congressional Districts
Michael McDonald
mmcdon at gmu.edu
Fri Aug 10 18:17:16 PDT 2012
I’d caution when using the Daily Kos data. It’s great that they provided the
data, but they did not appear to do the standard practice of disaggregating
precinct election results to census blocks and reaggregating into the new
districts. They summed votes for all whole counties within districts and
then assigned some unknown proportion of votes for split counties.
Unfortunately, there is no description of how they apportioned the split
counties. Their numbers for Ohio, for example, are much different than the
ones constructed by matching the block equivalency file against the state’s
redistricting database (a commenter points this out, and the reply is
uninformative).
(Btw, if you believe the accuracy of the Daily Kos spreadsheets, they list
all whole and partial counties assigned to each 2010 district).
For those who wish to DIY, I’ve posted some states’ election results
disaggregated to census blocks here:
http://www.publicmapping.org/resources/data
Some data were collected by myself, some are from Steve Ansolabehere and
Jonathan Rodden’s project to match election data to 2010 VTDs, available
here:
http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/eda/data
Typically, if a state makes a database available, I prefer to use their
database. Steve and Jonathan have processed more states than I’ve
disaggregated data for. Plowing through the remaining states is on my todo
list.
============
Dr. Michael P. McDonald
Associate Professor, George Mason University
Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
Mailing address:
(o) 703-993-4191 George Mason University
(f) 703-993-1399 Dept. of Public and International Affairs
mmcdon at gmu.edu 4400 University Drive - 3F4
http://elections.gmu.edu Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Justin
Levitt
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2012 4:50 PM
To: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Query - Counties and Congressional Districts
Thanks for the plug, Michael.
I've now added block equivalency files to the PDFs, shapefiles, and Google
map files of the new districts -- congressional districts here, state
legislative districts here. I've got almost all of the district
shapefiles, but as Michael suggested, only about half of the states appear
to make block equivalency files available in the same place as their other
redistricting data. I will, indeed, happily post other states' block
equivalency files if anyone wants to send them my way.
So far, all of the files posted are official (the only translation I've done
is in translating from an official ESRI shapefile format to a Google map
format, or from an official Google map format to an ESRI shapefile). If
official files aren't available for the remaining states, I'll happily post
others' translations from shapefiles to blocks (and I'll flag them as
derived).
In the absence of a 2010 census tabulation of stats for the new districts,
I'd also welcome (and gladly post) any analyses that people want to run,
including county allocations, raw population counts per district, CVAP
estimates, etc. (I've already linked to the very helpful Daily Kos
breakdown of '08 presidential results and constituent redistribution in the
new congressional districts.)
I'm talking to you, people with an oversupply of grad students and a need
for a project this coming semester...
Justin
On 8/10/2012 12:49 PM, Michael McDonald wrote:
I thought I would give Justin Levitt a chance to answer this question. He’s
compiled many of states’ congressional district boundary data and links to
primary sources here:
http://redistricting.lls.edu/2010districts.php
For some cases, like Arizona, the block equivalency files may not be listed
by Justin, but are available on the state website which he links to. In some
other cases, work will be needed to convert a shapefile (or worse, an image)
to a block equivalency file.
Once one has the block equivalency files, one could easily use the county id
embedded in the unique block id to generate a list of counties, and one can
do the work of tabulating the 2010 census data that Kim suggests will not be
forthcoming from the Census Bureau.
Justin has posted most of the states, and if I were to speak for him, I
believe that he would welcome anyone who may send him missing data to
complete the valuable service he has provided.
============
Dr. Michael P. McDonald
Associate Professor, George Mason University
Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
Mailing address:
(o) 703-993-4191 George Mason University
(f) 703-993-1399 Dept. of Public and International Affairs
mmcdon at gmu.edu 4400 University Drive - 3F4
http://elections.gmu.edu Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Kim
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2012 12:49 PM
To: djohnson at ndcresearch.com; richardwinger at yahoo.com;
lowenstein at law.ucla.edu; joehall at gmail.com
Cc: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Query - Counties and Congressional Districts
Doug is correct in noting that the link provided is to last decade's
districts. He is also correct in noting what the Bureau reported to NCSL
earlier this week, since we were at the same meeting.
But he did not note a more disturbing piece of information that was shared
with the group, that being that funding cut backs in the Bureau have caused
them to cancel the retabulation of the 2010 census numbers for the new
districts. When they get the district geography into their master system,
they will be able to have new ACS data reported for the districts, but not
old data. Whether these cutbacks affect other data products or tables
remains to be seen.
Who knows, maybe Lillie will turn out to be correct and we'll do this. Of
course, that means I need to come off my constant state of traveling and
find the tine (and $) to do the work.
Kimball Brace
Election Data Services, Inc.
6171 Emerywood Ct
Manassas, VA 20112-3078
(202) 789-2004 or (703) 580-7267
Fax: 703-580-6258
Cell: 202-607-5857
KBrace at aol.com or KBrace at electiondataservices.com
www.electiondataservices.com
NOTE: WE'VE MOVED: Please update your records.
==============================================
-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Johnson <djohnson at ndcresearch.com>
To: richardwinger <richardwinger at yahoo.com>; 'DanielLowenstein'
<lowenstein at law.ucla.edu>; 'Joseph Lorenzo Hall' <joehall at gmail.com>
Cc: law-election <law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>
Sent: Fri, Aug 10, 2012 11:14 am
Subject: Re: [EL] Query - Counties and Congressional Districts
That is correct: the current Census link provides 2000 Census data and
2001-cycle district lines.
At NCSL earlier this week the Census Bureau reported that it has just
completed collecting the 2011-cycle lines, and that it will use the new
lines in its 2013 release of American Community Service data, which I
believe is scheduled for January.
- Doug
Douglas Johnson
Fellow
Rose Institute of State and Local Government
m 310-200-2058
o 909-621-8159
douglas.johnson at cmc.edu
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Richard
Winger
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2012 6:27 AM
To: DanielLowenstein; Joseph Lorenzo Hall
Cc: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Query - Counties and Congressional Districts
That link goes to the 2000 census. Is there also a link for 2010 census?
Richard Winger
415-922-9779
PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
--- On Fri, 8/10/12, Joseph Lorenzo Hall <joehall at gmail.com> wrote:
From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <joehall at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [EL] Query - Counties and Congressional Districts
To: "Lowenstein, Daniel" <lowenstein at law.ucla.edu>
Cc: "law-election at department-lists.uci.edu"
<law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>
Date: Friday, August 10, 2012, 3:59 AM
The census is the place to send your friend, Dan:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cd109th/tables109.html
best wishes, Joe
On Thursday, August 9, 2012, Lowenstein, Daniel wrote:
A friend of mine is looking for a convenient data file showing for
all 50 states which counties are located, in part or in whole, in each
congressional district. If you can recommend such a source, please send the
information to me off-list. I'll pass it on to my friend. I believe this
is for research, not a political purpose. Thanks.
Best,
Daniel H. Lowenstein
Director, Center for the Liberal Arts and Free Institutions
(CLAFI)
UCLA Law School
405 Hilgard
Los Angeles, California 90095-1476
310-825-5148
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--
Justin Levitt
Associate Professor of Law
Loyola Law School | Los Angeles
919 Albany St.
Los Angeles, CA 90015
213-736-7417
justin.levitt at lls.edu
ssrn.com/author=698321
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