Avencia, an award-winning software design and development company, and the Committee of Seventy, the region's premier non-partisan government watchdog group, today launched a website dedicated to raising public awareness in the Greater Philadelphia area about the potential impact of the 2010 census on federal, state and local election districts. Boundaries in all of Pennsylvania's election districts are redrawn every ten years after the constitutionally-required census reports the number of people living in the United States and its territories. "Redistricting the Philadelphia Region" - available at http://www.redistrictingthenation.com/philadelphia - is the initial installment of Avencia's "Redistricting the Nation" project, the national version of which will be unveiled later this month. The goal of the local and national efforts is to ensure non-partisan redistricting that will encourage fair representation and competitive elections. The "Redistricting the Philadelphia Region" website includes easily searchable and readable features that allow voters living in Greater Philadelphia to: "We are proud to partner with the Committee of Seventy in helping citizens across the region get ready for local redistricting," said Robert Cheetham, Avencia's President and CEO. "It's a process that can be easily manipulated to protect incumbents and impede challengers. Our mission is to educate the public as early as possible about how it works, and its effect on their vote, in order to promote an open process that will lead to the fairest possible outcome." According to Seventy's President and CEO Zachary Stalberg, the website will be particularly fascinating to Philadelphians. He cited Avencia's 2006 "Gerrymandering Index" study, rating the Seventh and Fifth Councilmanic districts as the first and third most unfairly drawn - or gerrymandered - local districts in the country. "This was a black eye on the city, especially since the person who went to war to preserve the Seventh District's lines was its then Councilman, Rick Mariano, who is now in prison for corruption," he recalled. Councilmanic districts are drawn by legislation passed in Philadelphia City Council and approved by the Mayor. Cheetham added that, as part of its Redistricting the Nation project, Avencia is releasing an updated study of gerrymandering ("Redrawing the Map on Redistricting 2010") around the nation, later this month. A Philadelphia-focused supplement is now available on the Redistricting the Philadelphia Region website. The national edition will be released later this month. The new study expands on the scope and methodology of Avencia's 2006 "Gerrymandering Index" to include state-level districts, council districts and political wards for several new cities, and introduces three additional techniques for measuring districts' compactness. He noted that Philadelphia's councilmanic districts don't fare much better than in the 2006 study: The Seventh and Fifth districts remain in the top ten of the least compact local districts. Pennsylvania's Senate District 3 (Philadelphia) and House Districts 170 (Philadelphia/Montgomery) and 202 (Philadelphia) also rank at the top of the national list of least compact state-level districts, while Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District (Philadelphia/Delaware) is the 11th least compact congressional district in the country. Avencia and Seventy have previously partnered on Seventy's signature Voter Protection Program - the nation's largest and most sophisticated local nonpartisan Election Day operation that helps answer voters' questions and resolve problems at the polls - since 2006. During the historic November 2008 presidential election, Avencia's innovative web-based application mapped and tracked voting problems in real-time to enable Seventy's record-setting 1,000 person volunteer force to respond faster and more efficiently. Avencia is an award-winning Philadelphia-based software design and development company. The firm was founded in 2000 to create advanced technology that combines geography and the Internet. Avencia has developed geospatial modeling and analysis software for cultural resource management, political advocacy and fair vote campaigns, economic redevelopment, land conservation, crime analysis and sustainable economy. Their Cicero product - an online service for electoral geography that was used to create RedistrictingTheNation.com - incorporates a global database of legislative districts, elected officials, and other political data. See www.azavea.com/cicero for more information. The Committee of Seventy is a non-partisan and non-profit organization conducting a permanent campaign for clean and efficient government, fair elections and informed citizens in Philadelphia and the region. See www.seventy.org for more information.
Both Cheetham and Stalberg expressed excitement about the potential of Redistricting the Philadelphia Region to expand voters' understanding of their knowledge of the electoral process. "The more people know, the more willing they are to participate in the political process as voters or even as candidates," said Stalberg. "If that happens, the work involved in a project of this magnitude will have been well worth the effort."
