How to Include Minority Analysis in a Plan

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Maptitude for Redistricting provides out-of-the box tools to help evaluate the impact of district boundaries on VRA compliance. These tools can assist map drawers in creating districts that will keep them out of court, or argue the validity of district boundaries if legal challenges are brought against a plan.

To follow the steps in this article, contact us for a demo of Maptitude for Redistricting, or use your own license of the software.

Table of Contents

 

Calculate Black, Hispanic, and Minority VAP Percentages by District in Real Time

Maptitude for Redistricting makes it easy to add summary fields to your plan, including Black, Hispanic, and other minority Voting Age Population (VAP) percentages. As you draw or edit district lines, these percentages update in real time in the Districts dataview.

  1. Open your redistricting plan in Maptitude for Redistricting.
  2. Go to the Redistricting menu and select Settings.
  3. Choose Plan Settings.
  4. Click on the Summary Fields tab within the Plan Settings dialog.
  5. Click the Change button to modify the summary fields.
  6. Select the fields you want to add (e.g., race, ethnicity, VAP, etc.) from the available list.
  7. Click OK to confirm your selections.
  8. Click OK again to save your changes and exit the Plan Settings dialog.

The selected summary fields will now appear in your district dataview and summary reports.

Tip:

  • If you need to create custom fields (such as percentages or formulas), use the Dataview > Formula Fields button to add formula fields directly to the “Districts in Plan” dataview. These formula fields will also be available in your reports.

 

Creating a Plurality Theme

A plurality theme visually displays the predominant race or ethnicity group in each geographic feature (e.g., census block, tract, district) based on the highest percentage of population for that group. The plurality field is included in your demographic data tables for each layer of Census geography. It identifies the predominant race/ethnicity group and its percentage category for each feature (e.g., “Black (30%-50%)”).

  1. Open your map and select the layer you want to theme (e.g., census blocks, tracts).
  2. Go to Map > Color Theme.
  3. In the dialog, select the Plurality field as the theme variable.
  4. Choose your preferred color scheme and options.
  5. Click OK to apply the theme.

Each area will be colored according to the predominant group and its percentage range. For example, areas shaded “Black (30%-50%)” indicate that 30% to 50% of the population in that area is Black or African American, and this is the largest group in that area.

Tips:

  • The plurality field is calculated as the highest percentage group (e.g., any part Black divided by total population).
  • This field does not reflect population density; for density, use a formula field such as Population/Area.

 

Measure Compactness Scores for Districts

Maptitude for Redistricting provides built-in tools to generate compactness reports for your district plans. These reports include metrics such as area, perimeter, and standard compactness scores (e.g., Polsby-Popper). These scores can be used to counter arguments about district shapes in court.

  1. Go to the Redistricting menu.
  2. Select Reports.
  3. Choose Measures of Compactness
  4. Choose the desired compactness metric (e.g., Polsby-Popper).
  5. Click Run.

The results will display scores for each district, typically ranging from 0 to 1, where higher values indicate greater compactness. You can export the report results for documentation or court use.

 

Run Population Deviation Reports for Equal Population and VRA Compliance

  1. Go to Redistricting > Reports.
  2. Select Population Summary.
  3. Click Run.

The report will include population totals, deviations, and relevant VRA fields (such as Voting Age Population and minority percentages).

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