Download pdf - Legislative Redistricting

Legislative RedistrictingLegislative Redistricting

Legislative Technology Services BureauTony J. Van Der Wielen

GIS Manager

Joel YlvisakerGIS Analyst

Ryan SquiresGIS Analyst

UW - Applied Population LaboratoryJim Beaudoin

Senior GIS Applications Developer

The Legislative Redistricting ProjectThe Legislative Redistricting Project

Wisconsin performs local, legislative and congressional redistricting followingthe decennial U.S. Census.

• Components of Legislative Redistricting

– U.S. Census Bureau Redistricting Data Program (RDP)

– Local Redistricting

– Legislative Redistricting


The U.S. Census Bureau’s Redistricting Data Program

• 5 Phase Program

• Phase 1 : State Legislative District Project (2005 - 2006)

• Phase 2: Voting District/ Block Boundary Suggestions (2007 - 2009)

• Phase 3: Data Delivery (2010-2011)

• Phase 4: Collection of Post Redistricting Plans (2012 - 2013)

• Phase 5: Evaluation and Recommendations for Census 2020



• Phase 1 : State Legislative District Project (2005 - 2006)

• This program allowed states to submit current legislative district boundaries to the U.S.Census Bureau to be enumerated.

• http://factfinder.census.gov

• Allows Census 2000 to be calculated to Wisconsin Legislative Districts

• These district lines will also be enumerated for Census 2010.



• Phase 2 : Voting District/Block boundary Suggestion Project (2007 - 2009)

• This program allowed states to submit current or historic Voting Districts (Wards) to theU.S. Census Bureau.

• The voting district lines will be held for Census 2010.

• The voting districts submitted will be enumerated for Census 2010.• Historical Perspective• Historic Election Data can be used with Census 2010 data.

• Phase 2: Verification process for phase 2 was completed on April 1, 2010.



• Phase 2 : Project NOTES

• TIGER Modernization

• The Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER)

• System was developed in the late 1980’s (1990 and 2000 Census)

• All Geographic features used for the Decimal Census.

• Blocks, Block Groups, Tracts

• Streets, Streams, Railroads, Political Boundaries (Cities, Towns and Villages)

• Positional Accuracy could be as far off as +/- 50 meters (+/-167 feet) beforemodernization.

• Post modernization accuracy goal was set at +/- 7.6 meters (+/- 25 feet).

• ESRI Shapefile format.



• Phase 2 : Project NOTES

• TIGER Modernization

• Although positional accuracy has been enhanced there are some problems with the new TIGERdataset.

• All 72 of the State of Wisconsin’s counties were not modernized.

• Local dataset licensing

• Line and boundary problems.

• Reprocessing of 1,159 counties.

• Boundary Repair Program

• Legislative district line problems

• Population density problems



• Phase 3: Delivery of Public Law 94-171 – Redistricting Data to State Liaisons

• Tabulation Block Geography from TIGER 2010 (November 2010)

• Tabulation Block Counts - PL 94-171 Data (February – March 2011)

• Data will be received on or before April 1, 2011.

• Data will be made available on our website(http://legis.wisconsin.gov/ltsb/redistricting/districts.htm )

• And through the WISE-LR website. (http://legis.wisconsin.gov/wiselr)

Delivery of this data to the Legislature (and then to the counties)

starts the process of local redistricting in Wisconsin.


State of Wisconsin - Local Redistricting

• 180 Day Period For Local Officials Begins

• Start Date: April 1st 2011

• First 60 days – Tentative County Supervisory Plans created

• Second 60 days – Municipal Wards created

• (Based on Tentative Supervisory Plan)

• Final 60 days Final Supervisory and Ward Plans approved and submitted to the Legislature.

• Statewide Dataset Produced

• November 2011

• Data distributed to both houses of the Legislature for creation of legislative redistricting plans.

• Public Access to Redistricting Data

• January 2012

Monday, September 27, 2010

WISE-LR is an application that allows counties andmunicipalities to create an electronic map of municipalwards by grouping census blocks.

2000 Round of Redistricting: WISE (2000) – Pilot WISE-LR (2001) – Local Redistricting application for

counties and MCDs. WISE-LegRed (2002) - Legislative Redistricting

application for public access.

WISE-LR was the starting point for the 2000Redistricting effort.

All 72 counties of data was collected as part of theredistricting effort (in 1990, only 34/72).

The new WISE-LR application will provide the samefunctionality as the previous desktop application that wasdelivered to all 72 Wisconsin counties on April 1, 2001for the 2001 Legislative Redistricting Project. The maindifference between the two applications is the WISE-LR2010 application is now an internet application.

The internet application eliminates the three mostcommon issues encountered during the use of thedesktop application: installation, performance, and datasubmission.

Created by LTSB and the UW-Applied PopulationLaboratory.

No installation needed.

Secure access using a user name andpassword.

Broadband internet access required forefficient use.

2001 ward, 2009 streets, and 2009municipal layer are included as an overlay.

Data is backed up on our servers.

Bing Maps used as the base and/or aerialmap.

A letter and email was sent to county clerks across thestate asking if they would like to participate in the pilotprogram.

Currently 57 counties said “yes”, 15 counties said “no” topilot participation.

April 5, 2010 – Support for the pilot began at LTSB.

September 1, 2010 – Pilot program ends.

Gives counties an opportunity to use the WISE-LRapplication before its final release on April 1, 2011.

Counties can assess the support and training materials,make enhancement suggestions, and test features of thenew software.

As an added benefit for participating, counties had theopportunity to have assignments made in the pilotprogram made available in the final release of the

Administration Tool◦ Allows the administrator to add annexations.

Creation of GIS shapefiles.

The ability to share plans.◦ This allows others to import any plan that is shared into a new

plan.

The ability to approve plans.◦ Supervisory Plans – once a supervisory plan is approved it is

added as an overlay to all ward plans in the county.

◦ Ward Plans – once a ward plan is approved it is uploaded to theadministration tool.

◦ Final County Ward Plans – once all ward assignments areapproved and are verified in the administration tool the finalcounty ward plan can be approved. This final approval will notifythe legislature that ward submission is completed.

WISE-LR Websitewww.legis.wisconsin.gov/wiselr◦ Training Video

◦ Support Documentation

◦ Tutorials

◦ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

◦Contact information [email protected]

WISE-LR 2010 DemoUW - Applied Population Laboratory

Jim Beaudoin

Senior GIS Applications Developer