District Abstract Export Format

The “District Abstract” option of the Export dialog in DRA 2020 generates a JSON file that contains the aggregated district data used to analyze a map.¹ This is an example.

There are five sections in the file, along with some map-level properties.

Map-level properties

This section contains the following key/value pairs:

• state — The two-character state code, e.g., ‘NC’.
• name — The name of the map, e.g., ‘NC 116th Congressional’.
• nDistricts — The number of districts in the plan, e.g., 13.
• nCounties — The number of counties in the state, e.g., 100.
• bStateLeg — ‘true’ if the map is for a state legislature; ‘false’ for congressional plans

The population Section

This section contains the following key/value pairs:

• targetSize — The population of districts that are roughly equal in size, e.g., 733499
• byDistrict — An array of total populations by district (1–13 here)

The partisanship Section

This section contains the following key/value pairs:

• statewide — The statewide Democratic vote share or fraction,² e.g., 0.488196
• byDistrict — An array of Democratic vote fractions by district (1–13)

The demographics Section

This section contains the following key/value pairs:

• statewide — An array of the statewide fractions of voting-age population (VAP)² for each demographic
• byDistrict — An array of VAP fractions for each demographic by district (1–13)

In both cases, the array values are objects with these numeric key/value pairs:

• white
• minority
• black
• hispanic
• pacific
• asian
• native

The shapes Section

This section contains an array of values for each district (1–13), where the array values are objects with these numeric key/value pairs:

• area
• perimeter
• diameter

The splitting Section

This section contains a two-dimensional array of county populations by district (1–13), i.e., the array for each district has a number for the total population of each county in that district; the order of the counties corresponds to the sort order of their FIPS codes

Footnotes

1. The district-level aggregates depend on what datasets you have selected in the Data Selectors. In other words, if you choose a different dataset in the Data Selector, the district aggregates will be different (and then the analytics for the map will also differ).
2. All fractions are in the range [0.0–1.0]. Multiply fractions by 100 to get the corresponding percentages.
3. Or citizen voting-age population (CVAP), depending on which is chosen in the Data Selector.