Mock 22: The I-380, US 34, and US 18 districts
District 1: Pulled from Mock 20 because it’s so good.
District 2: Heavily Republican southern Iowa helps Mariannette Miller-Meeks.
District 3: Long district is long? Good on small area, not great on compactness. It keeps Polk, Dallas, and Story together, though.
District 4: Guthrie, Harrison, and Marshall counties drop down from the main area to form this one, whose variance pushes my self-imposed limit.
Mock 23: Put a blue ribbon on it?
District 1: This county combination makes its third appearance.
District 2: The Shelby-Audubon-Guthrie extension here is this map’s biggest weakness. But my only other options are Cass, Montgomery, and Mills, and they just don’t work out numbers-wise.
District 3: Shades of the 1960s 5th District, bringing Des Moines, Ames, and Fort Dodge together, but with more surrounding land. This time around, though, Fort Dodge isn’t even in the district’s top five cities.
District 4: This is a wraparound of Iowa’s northern and western thirds, from Lansing to Larchwood to Lewis. But despite its sprawl, and large perimeter, look at that variance.
This map, number-wise, is nearly as good as the LSA’s second 2000s map, the one that was approved. This map has potential, though I wouldn’t be surprised at something closer to Mock 14 or Mock 17A for geographic-size-equality reasons. I’m absolutely ending with this one.
The real maps come out Thursday.
UPDATE 9/22: Fixed slight Scott County population error. This brought the overall variance up slightly, but it’s still pretty dang good.