From Draw the Lines PA (https://drawthelinespa.org/):
A defining political challenge facing the United States is the hyper-partisanship that infects its politics. Much of the blame lies with how elected officials of both parties can manipulate their district boundaries to maximize electoral advantage, a practice known as gerrymandering. The result? Politics defined by ideological fringes. In short, gerrymandering is the bug in the operating system of democracy.
There is a growing amount of attention on this issue from Pennsylvanians across the ideological spectrum worrying about the effectiveness of government and growing partisan gridlock. That is why we are launching a multi-year, statewide initiative called Draw the Lines-PA (DTL). Its goal: To put into the hands of students and voters the same digital tools that the political pros use so they can participate in this process by creating their own maps and sharing them widely. DTL has the potential to reinvigorate a lasting sense of civic engagement and political efficacy across the Commonwealth, from students to senior citizens.
About the Competition: Draw the Lines is a series of public mapping competitions across three divisions – middle/high school, higher education, and adult. These nonpartisan, community-driven competitions will launch in 2018 when students and voters will map Congress. New competitions, including for state legislative districts, will engage citizens every semester until Pennsylvania has new maps in 2021.
DTL will use District Builder, an open-source platform that powered similar efforts through the AEI/Brookings Public Mapping Project in 2011. District Builder is built and maintained by Azavea, a Philadelphia-based B corp specializing in mapping software and analysis. The free and easy-to-use mapping platform will be backed by a pool of multimedia assets and technical support, a robust service-learning curriculum for schools, and community engagement toolkits for civic organizations and religious congregations to run their own mapping events.
Maps will be evaluated by objective scores, popular vote, and a bipartisan panel of civic leaders. Each division’s regional winners will convene in Harrisburg each December and May for a statewide event to crown that season’s best maps. Finalists and winners will earn cash prizes.
Civic Engagement and Project-Based Learning: DTL has consulted with teachers through various Intermediate Units and social studies curriculum advisors with the Department of Education and the PA Council for the Social Studies to develop a custom curriculum that is easily adaptable for teachers with diverse needs and constraints. It will engage students through cross-curricular project-based learning in social science and STEM (political science, government, applied geometry, statistics, GIS, computer science, etc.). Beyond developing hard skills, DTL helps students discover that the digital mastery they take for granted actually has the power to change the system. We are actively looking for teachers, schools, and districts to participate in the mapping competition. The curriculum will be free and available on drawthelinespa.org in 2018.
Inspiration: Draw the Lines is inspired by Amanda Holt, a piano teacher from Allentown. Before the 2010 election, Holt was alarmed by how her own districts split subdivisions in pursuit of a partisan advantage. Using only data in a spreadsheet, she drew a plan that convinced the PA Supreme Court to reject the politician-drawn legislative maps in favor of those with fewer subdivision splits. DTL wants to create 10,000 Amanda Holts across Pennsylvania.
A mapping competition is not a new idea. Philadelphia ran one in 2011 for city council districts, and it had a visible result on the final map. What’s more, eight states, including Ohio, Virginia, and Michigan, held competitions in 2011. Post-project evaluations found these competitions were too late and too small to achieve their potential for impact. By starting well before 2021, DTL can affect the process. It can also be a model to groups seeking to conduct similar contests in other states. It could end up creating a valuable national resource.
Project Leadership: As it moves into each region, DTL will form and work through local steering committees made up of educational, civic, and religious leaders. These steering committees will coalesce around a growing list of partners DTL has already cultivated.
Committed partners include: Code for Philly and Code for Pittsburgh, the hubs of civic technology in both regions; Millennial civic leadership groups in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; Fair Districts PA; the PA Council of Churches; several Boy Scout and Girl Scout chapters; the American Association of University Women of PA; Pennsylvania Political Science Association and various higher education institutions; the PA Library Association; the Rendell Center for Civic Engagement, and the PA Council for the Social Studies.
DTL partners will share the software tool and/or publicize events to their membership, offer in-kind support, and recruit members to DTL steering committees. Most importantly, they can host mapping events in their community. DTL will provide all necessary resources (like our community engagement toolkit), but partners have the autonomy to tailor their events to meet those of their local community.
Project Management: The Committee of Seventy will serve as DTL’s “backbone organization”, and will be responsible for DTL’s project management and fiscal administration. Based in Philadelphia, Seventy is a 113-year old nonpartisan, nonprofit advocate for better government in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. It is the largest good government group in the Commonwealth. Seventy’s CEO, David Thornburgh, is an accomplished civic leader and second son of former Republican Governor Dick Thornburgh.
Connect! Web: drawthelinespa.org. Social media: @drawthelinespa. Email: info@drawthelinespa.org.
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