Saving...
When we presented the winning maps to the Commission on August 3rd, there were a couple misguided folks in the audience who came to the conclusion that the ACDC mapping contest was a partisan effort to influence the process.
We were, frankly, shocked to hear this. We don’t know where it is coming from and it holds no water.
We have offered to hand over Redistrict Arizona to the Commission so that the 450 (or so) people who are using it now can continue to use it as a convenient way to express their redistricting needs to the Commission –regardless of political persuasion.
Perhaps these detractors believe that somehow the very programming of the public mapping tool will infect the process in a mysterious way.
There are two important things to know. First, Redistrict Arizona is based on Open Source programming. Such as to say, there are no proprietary programs in the system. Anybody can break it open and check under the hood. Second, were the Commission to take over ownership of Redistrict Arizona, they would re-program it to represent their own definitions for criteria such as competition, compactness and equal population.
We designed Redistrict Arizona to improve participation and public access to a process. In 2001 those who could afford $2,500 for mapping software and training had an unfair advantage over the public.
So, we need your help. If you have enjoyed using Redistrict Arizona and believe that it is useful tool in this mapping process, please contact the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission at (602) 542-5221 and let them know.
If you have any questions please contact us at azcompetitivedistricts@gmail.com
