I had no idea just how far away districts can be from 1 to 1
Districts can be off by as much as +/- 5%. Meaning that you can have two neighboring districts with close to a 10% difference in population from drawing. The following link is interesting reading.
https://www.carolinaforward.org/blog/state-house-gerrymander?fbclid=IwAR0VWMVu--DhtoAWfaRZXfN7_Gg9YmHqc4Y7hRoFBIAPr2twBeDZ_4UfQzs
The proposed Republican State House plan would produce:
56 solid Republican districts
40 solid Democratic districts
24 “competitive” districts
One way this was accomplished was by making Democratic districts contain too many voters and GOP ones contain too few.
Before kicking off, there is one critical piece of information readers must understand. Map drawers are required by law to draw districts of approximately equal populations in adherence to a “one person, one vote” principle. Because exactly equal district sizes would be impossible, courts have settled on a permissible variance of 5% over or under the ideal district size. While necessary, this unfortunately provides significant opportunities for partisan mischief. By strategically including/excluding specific voting precincts while still staying under the 5% variance limit, map drawers are able to swing the partisan leanings of whole districts, as we shall see.
The great challenge for GOP map-drawers in Wake and Durham counties is how to carve out Republican seats in the bluest area in the state. Wake gained two new House seats in this cycle due to population growth, which made this challenge just a bit easier. One priority for GOP map-drawers was to protect GOP Rep. Erin Paré (HD-40; HD-37 on the old map) in southern Wake. This map delivers Paré into hard-to-beat territory, changing her district from R+2 last year to R+7. (The district also has a very high 4.45% variance over the ideal district size, resulting from scooping in additional Republican precincts.) Map drawers also got an opportunity to play offense with Democratic Rep. Terence Everitt (HD-35 on both maps). Everitt is a consistent thorn in the side of Republican leaders, so it was no surprise to see his district redrawn significantly from D+5 to a new R+3. While his own district size is close to ideal, his closest neighbors - districts 36 and 45 - are both severely underweighted, with variances of -4.39% and -4.37%, respectively. One can see the play here: rather than balance the districts closer to equal populations, drawers chose to move Republican-heavy precincts into Everitt’s district to make it harder for him.
The Durham-Person county grouping made it necessary for Republicans to sacrifice GOP Rep. Larry Yarborough, who we wish a pleasant retirement. This map creates a new, D+5 District 51 that includes all of Person county and northern Durham. Districts 48, 49 and 50 - all solidly Democratic - are all among the most over-sized in the state, each with variances of about 4.8% and higher. These districts were kept oversized specifically in order to make 51 at least somewhat competitive.
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I did understand that some variance was permitted but I honestly figured it was considerably closer to say 1% than 5%. 5% is a huge variance in districts and frankly unacceptable given the precision that we are able to bring to bear in regards to district drawing. Bottom line, Dems got screwed here. This is the state house map but our congressional map is proposed to be 11 R 3 D.
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