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Technical Reference
Glossary, Links

Initiative Constitutional Amendment for
Automated Districting

Supreme Court | Computer Programming

1990 Census Statistics for California

Districting Seats For California:
California Assembly: 80
California Senate: 40
Board of Equalization: 4
US House of Representative: 52
(Census estimates suggest that California will gain
one or two seats in the Y2K Apportionment)

1990 Census Tracts in California
Total Tracts: 3,757
Zero Population markers and adjustments: 36
Total Populated Tracts: 3,721

Total Census Blocks: 5,858
Zero Population markers and adjustments: 187
Total Populated Blocks: 5,671

County Definitions: 58
Place Definitions: 876

Census Mapping Reference
Boundary Data Points: 154,864
Boundary Adjustment Points:
Populated Boundary Points: 149,152

Longtitude / Latitude Reference
North Extreme: 42.009655
South Extreme: 32.534100
West Extreme: -124.407951
East Extreme: -114.130432
State Centroid: 37.271878, -119.269192

See: Decennial Census
Link: US Census Bureau
Link: US Census Mapping Service

US Supreme Court Decisions
on Apportionment and Districting

Bush v. Vera, 116 S. Ct. 1941 (1996)
Shaw v. Hunt, 116 S. Ct. 1894 (1996)
Miller v. Johnson, 115 S. Ct. 2475 (1995)
Johnson v. DeGrandy, 114 S. Ct. 2647 (1994)
Growe v. Emison, 507 U.S. 25 (1993)
Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630 (1993)
Voinovich v. Quilter, 507 U.S. 146 (1993)
Franklin v. Massachusetts, 505 U.S. 788 (1992)
U.S. Dept. of Commerce v. Montana, 503 U.S. 442 (1992)
Board of Estimate v. Morris, 489 U.S. 688 (1989)
Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U.S. 109 (1986)
Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U.S. 30 (1986)
City of Lockhart v. U.S., 460 U.S. 125 (1985)
Brown v. Thomson, 462 U.S. 835 (1983)
Karcher v. Daggett, 462 U.S. 725 (1983)
City of Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55 (1980)
Connor v. Finch, 431 U.S. 407 (1977)
United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburgh, Inc. v. Carey, 430 U.S. 144 (1977)
Beer v. United States, 425 U.S. 130 (1976)
Chapman v. Meier, 420 U.S. 1 (1975)
Gaffney v. Cummings, 412 U.S. 735 (1973)
Mahan v. Howell, 410 U.S. 315 (1973)
Burns v. Richardson, 384 U.S. 73 (1966)
Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964)
Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1 (1964)

United States Constitution Article I, Section 2
Fourteenth Amendment (Equal Protection Clause)

Voting Rights Act of 1965, Section 2, coded as amended at 42 U.S.C. 1973
Voting Rights Act of 1965, Section 5, coded as amended at 42 U.S. C. 1973c

Computer Programming

The automated method of creating electoral districts can be manually, or run on a personal computer in a few hours. Although the Initiative doesn't actually contain programming code, the instructions in the Election Code section can be translated into any computer language. One of the more common and English-like languages is dBase, which is available for personal computers at a modest price. The popular Foxbase(c) implementation for Windows is available from many suppliers. A sample set of Foxbase programs and data files can be downloaded from this site.
Jump: Download Code and Data

There are only a few steps required to implement the districting program. Sample program (PRG) and Data Base Files are all named with the prefix CEnsus and use letters to identify their purpose:

Among the steps, the only complex process is calculating the proximity of adjacent tracts to the district centroid. The formula for calculating mileage distances between any two points on earth is common and well established. Mathematically, it uses uses the radius of the earth and the longtitude and latitude of two points to calculate the distance:
MILES = (ACOS(COS(lat1)*COS(lon1)*COS(lat2)*COS(lon2)+COS(lat1)*SIN(lon1)
*COS(lat2)*SIN(lon2)+SIN(lat1)*SIN(lat2)))/ 360* 2*PI* 3963

The automated process is graphically demonstrated in an animated sequence on this site.
Jump: Districting Animation

US Census | Supreme Court

 

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