Daniel DiDonato, 18, drafted new state senate districts at home on free software – and a judge picked his map ahead of professionals’ efforts to remedy voting rights violations

Earlier this month, after years of litigation, a federal judge in Alabama ordered a new state senate map. In a surprising decision, the map she chose wasn’t one drafted by a court-appointed special master and his expert cartographer, but rather one that had been submitted by an anonymous member of the public, known only by their initials, “DD”.

The decision stunned “DD” – an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Alabama named Daniel DiDonato – who learned his map had been selected as he was preparing to leave for his 9.30am introduction to political science class.

“I was absolutely surprised,” he said in an interview. “N​​ow, nearly 300,000 Alabamians will be voting under new district lines that I drew up at two in the morning in a dorm, a cramped dorm study room.”

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
    44·
    4 hours ago

    Kind of burying the lede, but really glad you posted this:

    The widespread availability of political data tools has created an online community – Election Twitter – where political, data and mapmaking junkies will create and share maps and forecasts. DiDonato said he “definitely” considered himself a member.

    “You have a whole bunch of these kids who are snippy and savvy and know about the Voting Rights Act, Section 2 of the VRA,” said Chaz Nuttycombe, 26, who developed an impressive record forecasting state legislative races while a student at Virginia Tech and has since founded State Navigate, a non-profit focused on state legislatures. “I’ve seen maps put together by special masters that I disagree with, and I’ve seen kids on Election Twitter put forward better maps for equivalent states and districts than those special masters.”

    He used a free online software, Dave’s Redistricting App, to draw the lines. He had begun playing around with it about a year ago, amid a budding fascination with redistricting. As he drew the maps late into the night fueled by soda but no caffeine, he turned off racial and partisan data, seeking to ensure that the new districts he drew were equal in population and made as few changes as possible to the one Republicans had adopted.