Virginia Governor McDonnell signed an executive order today establishing a bipartisan commission to advise him on redistricting. Technical support for the governor's advisory commission is envisioned to be provided by the Public Mapping Project, via the Virginia Redistricting Competition.

This is a good opportunity to update you on the Public Mapping Project. Over the weekend, we released a Beta version of the software which is functional for redistricting in all U.S. states and localities.  We have secured funding to continue to add more features to the software and enhance its performance, so we are o reely available) product available in time for redistricting. We are releasing news directly related to the project on our website (http://www.publicmapping.org). Raffaela Wakeman, working at the direction of Tom Mann at the Brookings Institution, is compiling and archiving redistricting news stories around the country in a database that can be sorted by state (http://www.publicmapping.org/Home/news-from-the-states). She is also adding links to on-line state advocacy efforts on the state pages (http://www.publicmapping.org/resources/state-resources). On January 20th at 9am-noon, we are holding a public forum at Brookings to discuss the software and public participation in redistricting.

 < al>============

Dr. Michael P. McDonald

Associate Professor, George Mason University

Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

                             Mailing address:

(o) 703-993-4191       &nbs p;  eorge Mason University

(f) 703-993-1399             Dept. of Public and International Affairs

mmcdon@gmu.edu               4400 University Drive - 3F4

http://elections.gmu.edu     Fairfax, VA 22030-4444