... 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 ...
"Anonymous"?
this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2025
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Should have said it was submitted anonymously.
Should be "formerly unknown"
Alternate story: Trump judge said the previous lines were too egregious to be legal, but then chose the most conservative map presented by the Special Master.
The kid based his map on the racially gerrymandered map and turned off racial considerations in the redesign. The map minimally tweaked a racial gerrymander, but because he didn't use racism in his tweak he thinks it's not racially gerrymandered. Garbage in, garbage out.
Did anyone check it for racism after it was done? He said he took the existing republican map and made as little changes as possible, but went* off population. It could have turned out okay? If you grab someone from "cross the tracks," he would grab from that. I don't know if it worked out that way, but I'd like to know myself.
While it would be better if his map had resulted in even stronger Black representation, he appears to have been the only one who followed the assignment, which was to remedy the original racism with the fewest changes to the districts. And he paid attention to proportions so that a voter in any district has an equal fraction of representation.
Yeah, you gotta be careful not to overcorrect. Thanks for pointing that out. Using the same tools to ensure neutrality (good) instead of biasing the vote to the other extreme (bad) is a pleasant surprise in of itself. But that this is the map they selected? Mind blown.
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.
made as few changes as possible to the one Republicans had adopted.
As I said in another comment, even small changes could have a huge impact. I would like to know how the racism was changed or stayed the same.
That's fucking rad as hell
Great job DD!