Post date: Mar 23, 2011 11:48:0 AM
The Virginia League of Women Voters hosted an awards ceremony for the Virginia Redistricting Competition on Tuesday, March 23rd. Approximately 150 students organized into 15 teams from 12 Virginia colleges and universities participated in the competition. The students' congressional and state legislative plans created using the Public Mapping software -- and the winning submissions -- can be found here. The competition judges, Thomas Mann at the Brookings Institution and Norman Ornstein at the American Enterprise Institute, published an overview of the competition in a Washington Post op-ed.
We are very grateful to the students who participated in the competition, as they showed that the public can draw redistricting plans that improve upon the current districts in terms of compactness, respecting existing political boundaries, fairness, competition, and even offer some new approaches that may enhance minority representation. The student plans will be introduced as official bills to the state legislature.
Congratulations to all the students who participated in the competition! They have shown the way for future competitions planned for Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.