Free the Oklahoma redistricting data
Texas provides it. So does California. And Florida.
But here in Oklahoma, so far all the public has seen from the redistricting efforts of the state House and Senate are some static PDF maps dealing with congressional redistricting from the House. The Senate hasn’t publicly released any maps.
Transparency has been the big buzz word this session. But all the redistricting work has gone on behind closed doors.
There’s three weeks left in the legislative session. Shell bills for legislative redistricting have already advanced, HB 2145 and SB 821.
A new House map is expected to be unveiled Friday.
Oklahoma should join other states and release the data and the geographical files, typically called shapefiles, for all to see.
Here’s what Texas offers:
Florida goes one better, and lets the public draw their own maps using a tool called MyDistrictBuilder.
Here’s why the data is important: With the map shapefiles, you can layer other important information like voter registration and demographic information on top of each redrawn district to get a fuller picture of the represented areas. The Texas Tribune put out some good maps earlier this week doing just that.
–Paul
Written by Paul Monies
Follow @pmonies
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[...] Today on In The Know, legislative leaders are warning that they will likely require deeper budget cuts than the Governor originally proposed, partly due to an unwillingness to adopt proposed IT reforms this year, including a $100M bond issue to pay for IT consolidation. The House redistricting map has been released with few changes from previous districts. On the Senate side, one proposal on the table would leave Tulsa Senator Tom Adelson representing people 250 miles away in Duncan. At Data Watch, Paul Monies calls for the release of more Oklahoma redistricting data. [...]