Leaders with supermajorities in both Kentucky's House and Senate have not released the shapefiles necessary for election law experts and community advocates to properly analyze the proposed districts. However, Robert Kahne (@rkahne on Twitter and maps+data at kypoliticaldata.com) has reverse-engineered those files. He used the county and precinct descriptions of the proposed districts in the supermajority's legislation.
You can download Robert's shapefiles for the proposed House, Senate, and Congressional districts here:
* Please note that the House districts in and around Owensboro are not accurate in this file as a result of local leaders' decision to change precinct maps when they shouldn't have.
Obviously, legislative leaders could have released these shapefiles weeks (if not months) ago, but surprise and speed are essential parts of their plan to pass favorable maps before the public can know or understand what's happening.
Please call the legislative hotline today and leave a message for your state Representative and Senator. The message is simple: SLOW DOWN ON REDISTRICTING.
None of this is fair. The unnecessarily rushed process and forcing the public to reverse-engineer maps to understand what legislation means for them. Both of these tactics undermine people's already fragile faith in our democracy.
Calling the legislative hotline takes two minutes. Max. The number is 1-800-372-7181.
