The United States, like many countries, conducts a decennial census of the population, and soon thereafter redistricting begins in earnest across the nation. There are few times lines are drawn on maps that have greater impact on the lives of citizens. Mecklenburg County is liberating redistricting for the Board of County Commissioner and Board of Education districts. Using this site, citizens can create district plans and become equal partners in the redistricting process.

How to Use This Web Site

About the Data

Demographic data is provided by the 2010 Census conducted by the US Census Bureau. Demographic data was aggragated from Census Blocks to Mecklenburg County Voting Precincts using the following methodology:

  • Census Block geometry for Mecklenburg County was extracted from Census Tiger Files and projected to North Carolia NAD83 Feet (EPSG 2264).
  • The Census Block geometry was converted to centroids (points) with the centroid forced within its parent polygon.
  • In a small number of instances where centroids were located outside any voting precinct (i.e. outside the county boundary), the centroids were manually moved back inside the nearest Voting Precinct.
  • Census Block centroids were intersected with and summarized by Voting Precinct polygons.
  • Voting Precincts were simplified via Douglas-Peucker algorithm for the web site to reduce page load size and increase performance.

Census data used for redistricting includes total population (P0010001), total population 18 years and over (P0030001), population of one race 18 years and over: white (P0030003), population of one race 18 years and over: black (P0030004), Hispanic or Latino 18 years and over (P0040002).

Voter registration data is provided by Mecklenburg County Board of Elections and includes straight ticket voting in 2008 (Republican and Democrat) and straight ticket voting in 2010 (Republican and Democrat).

The complete data set (with simplified geometry) is available for analysis, charting, and mapping on Google Fusion Tables.

About the site

This site was created by Mecklenburg County GIS using free and open source software: jQuery, OpenLayers, PHP, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, ColorBox, and jNotify.

To foster collaboration and ensure public trust, the source code for this site has been released under an open source license (MIT).

Disclaimer

This system is subject to current public information rules and regulations. Information presented on this web site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Mecklenburg County and its data providers give no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, precision, timeliness, completeness, or any other aspect of the data presented. The publisher and data providers assume no liability for damage arrising from the use of this web site or the data provided herein. Plans submitted by users are public records and are subject to North Carolina Public Records Law.