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Personal Essay
First, making this map was tons of fun and taught us a lot about the importance of districts. The site is a useful tool that we hope to use again.
The inception of this map was based on this view: Competitiveness is crucial to having fair, balanced elections to accurately reflect the areas and voters of Pennsylvania.
Competitiveness was our principal focus. It was a bit tricky around heavily Democratic areas such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, so we had to work through and around them.
As we were working on competitiveness, we also kept in mind the secondary point we prioritized, population equivalence. Having an equal number of people in each district is a very important factor to ensure fair elections and representation.
Our tertiary focus point was compactness. The difficult part was that clearly parts of Pennsylvania are sparsely populated whereas others are quite dense. The lines weren't always as clear and finely cut due to this, which is why it's not the prettiest map, but it's a map that worked out for us.
All in all, Draw the Lines was one of the most interactive yet fun activities we have done. We are truly grateful for the opportunity to have a say in the government and hope for the best.
