American Community Survey (ACS): A survey that releases data in four broad categories every year. The categories are: social, demographic, economic and housing. The ACS replaced the ‘long form’ of the census that was collected once every 10 years. The ACS does not report counts of the population but rather estimates.
At-Large Election: In a jurisdiction (for example a city) with an at-large election system, all voters in the jurisdiction vote for all candidates running for office in that city. In at-large election systems, the candidates and office holders are eligible to hold office irrespective of where they live within the jurisdiction.
By-Trustee Election: In a jurisdiction with a by-trustee area election system (such as at NVUSD), the voters from each trustee area vote for the candidates running for office in the voters’ respective trustee area. Elected officials and candidates must also live in the trustee area that they represent or want to represent. NVUSD moved from At-Large to By-Trustee Area elections for the Board of Education members (Trustee) for the 2020 Election.
California Voting Rights Act: The California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA), prohibits the use of an at-large election in a political subdivision if it would impair the ability of a protected minority group to elect candidates of its choice or otherwise influence the outcome of an election. The CVRA is different from the Federal Voting Rights Act (FVRA). Since the CVRA became law, many jurisdictions in California have changed from at-large to by-district elections.
Census Block: The smallest level of census geography used by the Census Bureau to report census data. In urban areas, census blocks usually conform to city blocks, and in rural areas they are often delineated by other physical features and legal boundaries such as bodies of water and roads. Redistricting is based on census block level data.
Census Tract: A geographic area for which the census bureau releases data. Census tracts are relatively permanent ‘units of analysis’ that are delineated for the purpose of presenting decennial census data. Census tracts usually contain between 2,500 and 8,000 people. Census tracts may be split by local jurisdictional boundaries. Census blocks nest in census tracts.
Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP): A variable collected by the American Community Survey that is used in Voting Rights Act assessments. This tells us an estimate of the population that is 18 years and older and a citizen of the United States.
Community of Interest: Group of people with one or more specific common interests. For redistricting, communities of interest are defined geographically based on where people with common interests live.
Compactness: Compactness often refers to a trustee area’s shape and contours, focusing on how closely a trustee area’s borders resemble a circle or square. When a trustee area has ‘tentacles’ or oddly shaped borders, it is often said to be non-compact. In California, compactness in redistricting is defined as ‘not bypassing nearby population’ when constructing trustee areas.
Contiguous OR Contiguity: A contiguous trustee area is one in which all parts are geographically connected to each other in some way. Within a contiguous trustee area, one may travel from any location to any other location without crossing the trustee area boundary. Some trustee areas are “water-contiguous” which means that islands have to be connected to the mainland; others are contiguous via a bridge. Drawing contiguous trustee areas is applying the criterion of ‘contiguity.’ If areas are only connected at one point, they are not considered contiguous.
Cracking: A term used in Voting Rights that describes splitting significantly sized racial or ethnic communities into multiple trustee areas, rather than keeping them together. Cracking is a particular problem when the division prevents the community from electing a candidate of its choice because it constitutes too small a portion of the electorate in the multiple trustee areas.
Criteria for Redistricting: Rules established in the law that the redistricting body must follow when drawing electoral district/trustee areas boundaries. For example, one criterion is that trustee areas have reasonably equal populations.
Deviation: The difference between the total population of the trustee area and the ideal population of the trustee area.
Districting: The process of creating equally populated electoral trustee areas by using various criteria (such as Communities of Interest). In districting, trustee areas are created “from scratch” in a school district, for example, that does not currently have trustee areas. Jurisdictions that do not have districts or trustee areas have “at-large” elections. Jurisdictions with trustee areas redraw or adjust them (usually) every ten years after the release of the new census data to equalize the populations again. That process is called redistricting.
Equivalency File: A GIS file that shows the relationship between two geographic units. In redistricting, this file usually lists each census block in the dataset and indicates which trustee area each block belongs to. The collection of block assignments is read by GIS software and displayed as trustee area lines.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Software: A computer program for capturing, storing, checking, integrating, manipulating, analyzing and displaying data related to positions on the Earth’s surface. Examples of commonly used GIS software include Google Earth, ArcGIS, Maptitude and MapInfo.
Ideal Population: The total population for the jurisdiction as reported by the Census P.L 94-171 dataset divided by the number of trustee areas. The ideal population is the number of people that each trustee area should contain when the redistricting process is complete.
Map layer(s): GIS term for spatial/geographic data files as they are displayed by GIS software. Map layers may display attribute data. The term ‘map layer’ is sometimes used interchangeably with ‘spatial file’ and ‘GIS data file.’
Packing: A term used in Voting Rights that describes over-concentrating a significantly sized racial or ethnic community within one trustee area when it could have been allocated between two or more trustee areas in which would have had the ability to elect a candidate of its choice. Packing is a problem because over-concentrating a community in one trustee area reduces or dilutes its ability to achieve fair representation in the legislative body in general.
Racially polarized voting (RPV) or racial bloc voting: Racially polarized voting occurs when voters of different races as a group tend to vote for different candidates. For example, in an area where white voters tend to vote against the candidates for which Asian American voters cast their ballots, racially polarized voting is present.
Reasonably Equal Population: The redistricting criterion that implements the one-person, one-vote concept derived from the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.
Redistricting: The constitutionally mandated redrawing of local, state, and federal political boundaries every ten years following the U.S. census. Redistricting is done to equalize the populations in the trustee areas, using various criteria.
Redistricting Data (P.L. 94-171) Summary File OR ‘P.L. 94-171 Summary File’: The official name of the file that contains data used for districting and redistricting. Creation of this file, using data collected through the Decennial Census was mandated by Public Law 94-171. The P.L. 94-171 file reports basic demographic data for all people in the U.S. and is released on the census block level.
Section 2 (of the Federal Voting Rights Act): Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) prohibits voting practices, policies, or procedures that have a discriminatory purpose or effect on racial or language minorities; this section applies nationwide and is a permanent provision of the VRA. To be in compliance with Section 2 of the VRA trustee areas must provide voters with an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.
Total Deviation: The difference between the lowest and the highest deviation of all trustee areas.
Voting Age Population (VAP): The number of people aged 18 years or older.
Voting Rights Act (VRA): The Voting Rights Act (VRA) was originally passed in 1965 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of race or color. It has been amended several times, and now also prohibits discrimination based on membership in certain language minority groups.
