Overview

How political districts are drawn determines who gets elected. Unfortunately, the process of drawing districts often takes place behind closed doors, with little to no input from the public. DistrictBuilder is a free redistricting tool that empowers everyone to draw better electoral maps, all online with no need for desktop software. In this talk, Dan and Jeff will demo the latest release of DistrictBuilder, discuss how they built it, and highlight ways that everyone can be involved in fair redistricting.

You’ll learn how to...

• Advocate for fair districts in your community
• Design intuitive applications using maps
• Build tools that move geospatial analysis online

Part of the Mapbox Elections Challenge

Explore the why and how of effective elections maps with a special speaker series and map-making contest! More at mapbox.com/elections-challenge-2020

Speakers

Jeff Frankl, Designer, Azavea

Jeff Frankl is the Design Lead for DistrictBuilder. He has researched how frontend geospatial libraries can enable a more intuitive and responsive redistricting experience. Previously, he worked in public interest journalism and taught a "coding for city planners" class at University of Pennsylvania.

Daniel McGlone, Senior GIS Analyst, Azavea

Daniel is on Azavea's Data Analytics Team and has over 8 years of experience working on redistricting and gerrymandering research projects. He also works to maintain geospatial data on legislative boundaries for Azavea’s Cicero product.

About DistrictBuilder

DistrictBuilder is a partnership between Azavea and the Public Mapping Project. Azavea is a mission-driven software company that uses its nearly twenty years of geospatial expertise to help their clients address complex civic, social, and environmental problems. The Public Mapping Project seeks to increase public participation and transparency in redistricting through the deployment of online mapping tools and educational information.

DistrictBuilder was made possible with the support and guidance from the Public Mapping Project, Dr. Michael McDonald, and Dr. Micah Altman.

Resources

• DistrictBuilder 
• DistrictBuilder Blog
• Github Repo for DistrictBuilder
• DistrictBuilder development roadmap
• 2017 blog post about the development of DistrictBuilder
• Follow DistrictBuilder on Twitter
• For using other data with DistrictBuilder, check out this documentation
• Mapbox Election Mapping Challenge and speaker series
• Youtube: Political Geometry - The Mathematics of Redistricting
• drawthelinespa.org
• cicerodata.com
• Impact Tool template and tutorial: Charts
• GL JS example for user map selection
• GL Draw example
• Tidycensus R package