Voting in Wisconsin
When the Wisconsin legislature creates new State Assembly district boundaries once each decade after the decennial census, they are required by the state and federal constitutions to follow certain rules and guidelines. For example, districts should have equal population size, be as compact as possible, and be bounded by county, town, or ward administrative borders.
In part, these rules were created to prevent purposeful manipulation of district maps for political ends—or gerrymandering. Claims of unconstitutional gerrymandering in the 2011 Wisconsin state legislative district map were heard were heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in October 2017. Two core concepts of gerrymandering were central to the arguments presented to the court: and .
Explore and compare the 2001 and 2011 State Assembly Districts yourself, along with the vote outcomes from the 2016 presidential election. Use the options below to show or hide the 2001 and 2011 assembly district and county boundaries.
One dot represents a number of votes cast by party. Dots are distributed randomly within their ward. At your current map zoom, each dot represents 100 votes.
Outlines of Wisconsin's seventy-two counties.
New state assembly districts drawn in 2011.
State assembly districts from 2001.
Districts from the 112th United States Congress in 2011.
Outlines of the voter wards used to make assembly districts.
Outlines of Census blocks, which are used to create voter wards.
