District 6 is CLEARLY gerrymandered! This is ridiculous!

The moving of the precincts from the ones which were closer to Philadelphia to the upper portion of the county misrepresents the true demographic of district one as the sections of Montgomery county included in the map are more rural and not as suburban and typical of the rest of District 1

District 13 is an ill-conceived drawing of a district on its southeastern edges. To crack Dauphin County and draw Harrisburg and its suburbs into a district that includes predominately rural counties that head to the west is purely a move to dilute the votes of the people who live in a vibrant, thriving community with a high growth rate over the last decade. Harrisburg and its suburbs are diverse. This is a move to draw those votes into a district that is predominately conservative and rural. I believe that fits a definition of gerrymandering. I think that Harrisburg is part of a community of interest that includes Cumberland and northern York counties. This district as drawn on the southeast violates the principle of communities of interest. It is to flout the rules to enjoin parts of Dauphin County and parts of western and eastern Cumberland County with Blair Fulton and Huntingdon to the west and Union to the north. There is no community of interest, There is no reason to include these gerrymandered pieces of Dauphin and Cumberland in this district. Culturally, historically and economically, this is a grievous idea. Also it shows a total lack of respect for the capitol of this state and the thriving economy that it drives. Most of the counties in this newly drawn district have seen significant population losses over the last decade. To patch that with these parts of Cumberland and Dauphin Counties is to reward growth by gerrymandering and diluting the votes of people of color.

I applaud the effort to get the number of constituents equal for each district but feel grouping similar areas should be more important. I live in East Pennsboro and feel we were carved out for purely political reasons. We’re very dissimilar to the rest of the district and our voices will be drowned out in district 13. I prefer the old district 10 lines to this gerrymandered map.

Agree completely with and can't say it any better than did Leigh Ann Chow. "The paring off of Camp Hill boro and East Pennsboro Twp from the rest of the 10th district takes two very similar areas of the suburban West Shore of Cumberland County and places them with very dissimilar rural voters. Clearly, it is a shameless attempt to divert Blue voters away from the increasingly purple Cumberland County. PA voters deserve a fair map and fair elections. Shame on the PA GOP for this blatantly gerrymandered proposal."

District 11 should not include any of Dauphin or Lebanon Counties. The maps for the district that include those counties are oddly drawn and curious. I think that Lancaster has a community of interest with parts of Eastern and Southern York Counties, not with part of Lebanon and part of Dauphin. They share the Susquehanna River and culture and geography. Both Lancaster and York have experienced growth over the last decade. Lancaster is the Red Rose City and York is the White Rose City. They share history and culture and many of the inhabitants cross the Susquehanna to work and play in both directions. Both are suburban, rural and have vibrant cities that have their county's name. Both are fairly conservative but have a mix of voters that allows for competitive elections. I think that Lebanon and Dauphin do not fit well with Lancaster , and York does. I question why parts of Dauphin and Lebanon were drawn into the district. Dauphin is more diverse than Lebanon, perhaps it was to dilute the votes of people of color rather than to draw a district that is competitive and is a community of interest.

District 10 as drawn is not a good combination. District 10 should include Cumberland, Dauphin and the northern part of York County. They comprise a community of interest. People in those counties often work in Dauphin County. They seek dining, shopping and entertainment across borders. Harrisburg and its surrounding communities are collectively the East Shore. Cumberland and upper York are known as the West Shore. They share the Susquehanna River. To put Dauphin out of this district is to remove the engine that drives the community. All three counties have seen growth this past decade. This is a vibrant area that should be kept together. Adding Adams to the district while removing the core of Dauphin is nonsensical. Adams is mostly rural, while Cumberland is a combination of suburban, towns and some rural. Northern York is also suburban, urban and some rural. They belong together. I believe that adding Adams and removing Dauphin was to ensure a gerrymandered district. Some of the carve outs of Eastern and western Cumberland look irregular.

District Nine is conveniently drawn to include Wilkes Barre and Hazleton, the Wilkes Barre carve out looks suspiciously gerrymandered. If more of Luzerne were included in 8, district 9 could incorporate Bradford and Susquehanna Counties and not divide Potter County. It could also add in Lebanon County, which was a part of this district before and fits more better into the district than into District 6 with Chester and Berks..

District 8 should include more of Luzerne County. Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties share history, culture and the two counties are culturally connected. If the map were to include much of Luzerne County and a part of Monroe, the newly added Bradford and Susquehanna Counties could fit into their former district. The drawing of Luzerne as depicted cracks the county and will dilute the competitive nature of the county, which, I believe, is considered a form of gerrymandering.

District 7 should not annex part of Berks County. It should remain with part of Monroe County. The southern part of Monroe County has more in common with Northampton and Lehigh Counties than with the 8th district into which it has been drawn in this map.

The map for District 6 is bizarre. Instead of taking the district into parts of northern Lebanon County, the district should include more of Berks County. The drawing into Lebanon County violates the principle of communities of interest and contiguity. It looks gerrymandered and makes little sense to connect suburban Chester County and the mountains of northern Lebanon County.

The drawing of this map that includes South and Southwest Philadelphia, and the myriad suburbs of Delaware County to include Chester County farmlands extending to the border with Lancaster county seems to flout the rules about communities of interest. Furthermore, it conveniently draws the map to change the district radically by gerrymandering the incumbent for Chester and Berks into a different district. The lines look arbitrary and contrived.

This seems to lump cities in with large sections of rural areas. It dilutes the voices of minorities and probably progressive leaning areas with right leaning conservative areas. I don't think this makes sense. It seems like rigging the system.

Investigate the selection process between Grove, the submitter and a certain PA State Senator who wants to be a US Congressman, guess who?

For the people, this is a horrible map. This map blatantly divides communities that would share in needs and wants, pairs these areas with specific needs with areas with totally different needs. It will lead to many citizens NOT receiving the project funds, help, or services we need or want. Isn't the primary goal to help the citizens that THEY are representing? Why can't these people figure out this is for the people as a whole, not the few?

This bill makes a sham of democracy in the 10th District. It is a disgrace.

District 10 has been drawn to turn it from a competitive district to one that will be a solid republican district. This is another republican gerrymandered map. Do better!

The paring off of Camp Hill boro and East Pennsboro Twp from the rest of the 10th district takes two very similar areas of the suburban West Shore of Cumberland County and places them with very dissimilar rural voters. Clearly, it is a shameless attempt to divert Blue voters away from the increasingly purple Cumberland County. PA voters deserve a fair map and fair elections. Shame on the PA GOP for this blatantly gerrymandered proposal.

Partisan Fairness is essential for fair representaion of everyone's vote, and this map, according to Dave's Redistricting App, was rated "Very Bad"-With an 8.8% partisan bias favoring Republicans. We can do better than this!

Voting No to these changes! Why these changes to begin with???

I don't like the way Dauphin. County and the entire Greater Harrisburg Area are split up. There's no reason to split Dauphin County. And the Greater Harrisburg Area, from an economic and social perspective, extends as far west as Mechanicsburg and as far south as Dillsburg.

Unfair gerrymandering. Let the district remain unchanged.

There is no reason to redistrict - stop gerrymandering.

District 6 still looks like a gerrymanders district. Including deep red parts of Lebanon County is designed to dilute the Democratic vote in Chester Co. There is no way to justify this "geographic overreach" Any why part of Lebanon is included in Lancaster is bewildering. Let's face it, Lebanon is a win for the Republicans regardless of how many votes you slice away to help other districts.

Why is the Harrisburg area all divided up? I live in Hershey, work in Middletown, and hang out in Harrisburg. This is all one community. Why divide up the county?

I am opposed to this map and all other redistricting maps in the ENTIRE USA because: The population on which these maps are based includes several classes of non-USA-citizens: illegal aliens who were counted in the 2020 census, visiting non-US citizens, temporary workers who are in the USA from foreign countries, prisoners from out-of-state and other PA districts, etc. All of whom were counted in the 2020 Census and thereby included in the redistricting calculations. Why do these non-citizens have an influence on how we vote? I notice that the chart accompanying this map does not distinguish between US Citizens and non-US citizens. It would be a good idea to do this because some districts have heavy non-citizen populations compared to other districts. It would also be informative to show the number of prisoners per district as the state & federal prisons have large inmate populations which can sway a district's size and boundaries.

This is another attempt to steal the VOTE!!!! I am a strong dissenter. As the population demographics change with a more diverse population, the Republican's can only win by stealing the VOTE!!!! This is not American. Why not Govern for all of the people instead of just the SUPER RICH!!!! I disagree with this map!!!! Breaking up Willistown is wrong! How can they sleep at night??

Why in the world would Harrisburg and Middletown be in different districts? Harrisburg's airport in in Middletown. For once can't we see a map drawn without an intention of diminishing our voices? Dauphin county alone is joke. I'm so pissed.

Similar to other comments, anytime these boundaries are drawn THROUGH and AROUND boroughs and small communities like Annville its obvious alternative motives are present. If we want to bring our small communities back together, then keep them a part of the same political landscapes so all citizens within are part of the same jurisdictions and have the same opportunity to elect their community leaders as a whole.

To include this expanse of Lebanon county in the same district as Chester is too extreme. To me, this makes no sense. To be fair, Lebanon and western Berks share many similarities, but expanding this all the way thru and into Chester county takes this too far. If anything western Chester County and eastern Lancaster could more logically be grouped.

I oppose this map based solely on District 6. I'm sure other districts have the same problem but this is just bad. I live in Berks County but worked in Chester County for over fifteen years. Outside of the border where there is some overlap of school districts. There border itself is a hard line w/ little crossover. The needs of Berks are drastically different than those of Chester. If you looked at average income it would be blatantly obvious. And having part of Lebanon county in the district is beyond ridiculous. They will share some of the issues that Berks has but have nothing in common w/ Chester. I would not approve if I was in District 5 as well. Just like Berks and Chester having different needs. The needs of Southern Chester County are different than Delaware County's needs. I'm positive this plays out all across the state w/ arbitrary lines being drawn that don't take into consideration the needs of the people in the area.

I vote NO to politicians choosing their voters. This is gerrymandering

Gerrymandering

I understand that no map will be perfect, yet this one is very troubling. This area of the 17th is especially problematic. I'm very disappointed in this process as well. Good government groups have been begging legislators to improve the process and instead we get this. Please consult your better angels and do better.

This map seems like an experiment to see if zero population variation can be achieved, and it can't be taken seriously. There were much better maps submitted to the committee than Holt 0. This one should never have been chosen. Districts are supposed to be compact, and this map has many un-compact districts, especially 5, 6, 9, 11, and 13. Several districts have little incursions and pennisulas into other districts. This seems to have been caused by a focus on exact population equivalence, which isn't required, and weakens other aspects of the map. A population deviation up to 0.5% would be acceptable, and the districts could be much more compact. Plus, the map is unfair in that it clearly favors the GOP. Plus, no rational was given by the committee chair on how and why this map was chosen. Even other members of the committee where not informed of the decision until it was reported in the press. Not very transparent.

The Harrisburg-Carlisle metro area is split across three separate district, diluting the voting power of this well-defined community of interest. Efforts should be made to avoid breaking apart metro areas into multiple districts when possible

Potter County should not be split up in the manner proposed. it is important to keep Potter County together because our size results in us doing things together and connecting with different parts of the county. School districts are split up. Many go to a church in a different part of the county than where they live or travel to get to different venues available in the county. Therefore we interact with the county as a whole and have the same needs. Having two or three different representatives to congress within the same county is confusing. People get confused as to who their representative is. Sometimes it feels like that is the purpose. We may be small but we do not deserve to be split into so many parts that don't make sense. People to the north and south of me, literally within 10 minutes from my house in either direction have a different representative than me. Does not make sense. Communities, especially school districts need to stay together.

This is a clear effort to manipulate the boundaries of electoral districts for political gain. I am not in favor of this.

Clumping Democrats, who represent half of the states' population, into a voting minority of districts because the existing gerrymandered districts resulted in a primarily Republican state congress is exactly what we need to be avoiding. We need bipartisan redistricting, checks and balances, equity and equality, and the population centers of the state need distinct representation. York, Harrisburg, Lancaster, and Lebanon are not properly served as one district.

Please be fair. Our form of government is fragile. Do the right thing. DO NOT GERRYMANDER to favor one party over the others.

I am not in favor of this ridiculous map

Do not gerrymander

Do not gerrymander my district! This is a ridiculous proposal splitting the district over three counties.

The preliminary plan needs to be thrown into the trash and a new map. Precisely equal population distributions means nothing when the districts break natural communities of interest, labor markets and metropolitan statistical areas into balkanized fiefdoms. Dividing counties like Dauphin, Cumberland and Lebanon into three different congressional districts make no sense. Where I live, 8 miles from the State Capitol Building, I have a Harrisburg postal address. Yet, under this plan I am part of the 13th congressional district where the center of the community of interest (and power base) rests in Lancaster. I rarely go to Lancaster. I go to Harrisburg several times each week. Tell me how Harrisburg City and most of Dauphin County shares any interests or have comparable needs to that of Fulton, Blair (Altoona), Mifflin, Union, Snyder or Huntingdon Counties? How about that mountain range that creates a natural boundary between these areas? South Central Pennsylvania and the Harrisburg area has shared interests and should be maintained as one district, not some add-on to complete the population requirements for adjacent congressional districts. Start over. We need

This map prioritizes 0 population deviation for voting districts over the much more relevant concerns of intact municipalities and drawing lines that recognize communities of interest. The census is a snapshot in time and those numbers are already shifting. North Whitehall Township, for example, shows a slight decline in population in 2020, but there are currently plans for apartment complexes that will definitely increase population in 2022. Zero population deviation is fine, if you are planning divisions for fruit flies. Voting districts should be drawn to provide better outcomes in service to the people and communities that are being represented. This can be done, as demonstrated by many other citizen-drawn maps that have been submitted.

This map would likely result in a 10-to-7 advantage for Republicans in our Congressional delegation. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it is odd since Pennsylvania has more Democrats than Republicans. Why was this ONE map chosen, drawn by ONE private citizen – instead of some of the other maps produced by this same citizen or some of the maps produced by groups like Draw the Lines?

I would not accuse Amanda Holt of intentionally engaging in partisan gerrymandering (even though she is a Republican), but this map looks egregiously gerrymandered. The SGC gave no rationale for choosing this particular map save that it was drawn by a private citizen. Holt even admits in her testimony that she does not know why this map was chosen rather than one of her better ones. And the minority members of the SGC were not allowed any input into the selection process. So much for transparency. Giving absolute priority to exact population equality, which resulted in this map, is nonsensical, since the census data is imprecise, changes over time, and even has “noise” inserted into it in an effort to increase respondents’ privacy. The US Supreme Court has ruled that it is “not essential that a state draw districts with ‘precise mathematical equality’ so long as small variations serve legitimate objectives.” This map was drawn without attention to the important criteria of compactness and communities of interest.

This map is inherently unfair, and is gerrymandering, which is illegal. Specifically, I am commenting about the 10th district. Metropolitan areas (like Harrisburg which is very near the equal population number itself) should not be divided up, let alone municipalities like the City of Harrisburg. Dauphin County, most of Cumberland County and Northern York County should be in the 10th district, not divided. It makes no sense for Camp Hill Borough and East Pennsboro Township not to be in the 10th district. Equal population is a general objective, not a requirement. As it stands now, the 10th district is severely gerrymandered in favor of the incumbent. Adding Adams County to the district where only part of Harrisburg and Dauphin County is included highly tips the scales in favor of Republicans. The most recent previous map for the 10th district utilized in the 2020 election is a much more fair and competitive district.

This is totally unfair to voting Americans. WHAT happened to one voter, one vote???

I think the plan to redistrict zone 5/6 chester county and combine it with Luzern county is a mistake. Redistricting should not be made along party lines to flip a county one way or another. I also think it is a mistake to split a township into two zones. Please do not implement this plan.

Boroughs and townships should not be split up like this. Update policies, not maps.

While commending the drafter for her efforts to bring about population equity and the desire to not split municipalities (including counties) I strongly disagree that this effort should supersede the goal of harmonizing communities of interests. The natural boundaries of the appalachian mountains is an example. The communities surrounding the Harrisburg area have no community of interest with Altoona and Hollidaysburg. It would be better to divide a county and create more congruous districts. My comments do NOT go to the partisan issue but to the community of interest efforts.

This is not a good map. The way Cumberland County was handled is crazy. There's a huge difference between the county West of Carlisle and East of Carlisle. The Eastern part belongs with Harrisburg and probably York and their suburban areas. If the goal for this map is to elect more R's than D's, then it fulfilled its purpose. I don't know why you wasted people's time having the public hearings because you totally ignored the input you got. Insisting on a population deviation of 0 or even 1 between districts could be in the dictionary as the definition of insanity. It seems to me that you have no respect for the intelligence of the residents of our state being able to see and determine that you are just trying to do more of the same that you did in 2010/2011 in drawing a Congressional district map.

Politicians should not be allowed to choose their voters.

The new division in my area seems to be for nearly no other reason than adding more weight and value to traditionally Republican voting blocks. It is partisan and bizarrely anti-democratic. If you aren't winning Chester County, start matching your policies to the population you serve--don't cut up the districts so you don't have to listen to the people.

Strongly disagree with this proposed change.

Please do not change map

This map further splits District 6, hooking into part of Lebanon County but slicing off part of Willistown Township in Chester County. What goal is reached by that action? The committee needs to explain its priorities in choosing this map over the others proposed, and why zero population deviation appears to be a priority over other considerations. Further, the committee needs to be more transparent in telling residents the deadlines for each step in the process, and allowing them time to react.

At a high level, it absolutely looks like gerrymandering - areas are chopped up and do not make sense. Why is Lebanon county partly in 11? and then weirdly goes into part of Dauphin? Just commenting on where I live. This is why people lose faith in the system. Gerrymandered maps.

Other comments have accurately described my own—and my community's—frustrations. So I won't bother typing out the glaringly obvious. This would lead to misrepresentation and underserviced peoples.

This proposal is indiscrete gerrymandering. Highly "dislike".

Willistown township should not be divided. West Chester borough should not be divided. Not splitting townships and boroughs is important for serving their populations. A representative will have a great deal of difficult serving districts with vastly different needs and spread out geographically. In addition the new map does not follow the Pennsylvania State Constitution's guidelines. This map is unacceptable!

To borrow Jonathan Cervas's term, this map "fracks" (fragmentally splits) at least five counties: Blair, Butler, Chester, Cumberland, and Potter. CD13 actually intrudes into Cumberland in three different places. For a map touted for minimizing splits of political subdivisions, this one exploits the fracking loophole extensive, by counting these splits only once.

This map dilutes virtually every small, urban, majority-minority city in PA by cracking them into various geographically large but sparsely populated, rural areas of the state. As it stands, likely representatives of these Districts could ignore ongoing challenges of housing, congestion, environmental air quality, alternate forms of transportation, policing and crime, growth, and economic development shared in these urban areas. The treatment of the Central PA area seems most egregious. Steelton, Camp Hill, and Harrisburg City appear to have been carved out for no apparent reason other than to balance population distribution. Most of the districts this map creates would not be competitive. This map should not be accepted.

Hi, I live in Delaware County. Part of Philadelphia is now in our District according to this map and I am so dissappointed by it. Philadelphia has many different needs then ours. we chose to live in this county for its area and schools. Enough has happened politically to divide us. This redistricting will just make matters worse than ever. Suburban Delaware County is totally different then Phildelphia. Leave it alone!

As a District 6 constituent, it doesn't make sense to me that the proposed District 6 splits my Chester County municipality in half and combines our Philadelphia-suburb community with areas that are hours away and close to Harrisburg. This is an arbitrary and nonsensical shape for a congressional district.

Very unethical to try to sneak in this redistricting before Christmas. I VOTE NO!!!

It might help to look at the the past two years itineraries of the congressmen and plot their visits to regions of their districts. Are there areas within a congressman's district that he seldom or never visits? If so, perhaps consider shifting the boundary. There seem to be some disjointed spurs sticking out in some (especially western) districts and I wonder if those areas ever see their representative.

Completely biased an unconstitutional, this is a very bad and partisan plan. Gerrymandering must go. Hard No to this map

As a resident of Cumberland County, splitting the county and its surrounding region is clearly meant to dilute the suburban/urban population centers. In a state that is fairly evenly split overall, having a district map that will secure Republican majority is clearly partisan effort that is blatantly transparent.

This map targets three Democratic incumbents (Lamb, Wild, Cartwright) and makes their districts overwhelming Republican. It triples the partisan lean of Republican districts by making all current Republican-held districts even more hyper-Republican and partisan, guaranteeing they won’t be competitive for at least the next decade. It targets Democratic areas of Dauphin and Cumberland Counties by splitting them apart and packing them in heavily-Republican areas, diluting minority voter populations around Harrisburg, York, and Lancaster, which is particularly deplorable. It purposefully ignores the last decade of demographic shifts and population growth away from western PA by simply making already Republican-dominated districts even bigger. It Reduces the number of “competitive” districts down to 3 out of 17 and gives Republicans a solid lock on another 9 seats. Democrats would likely be left with just 5 seats under the new map. This map is unacceptable to voters. Go back to the drawing board.

Willistown Township should not be split into two districts. Stop the gerrymandering!

Why is part of Philadelphia included with the district for Delaware county? The city is very different than the suburbs and should not be part of our district

My wife & I live in West Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County. Our part of the township has been placed in District 13 while the rest of the township is in District 10. Our neighbors on three sides all within three miles would be represented by a different congressman. One of the supposed purposes of an independent commission was to stop splitting political subdivisions when determining congressional representation. What happen with us?

Chopping up the 6th district this way is unconscionable and serves no purpose for the people of the area

I don't know what to say but this is why people feel disenfranchised. This is a terrible map. Dauphin County and Harrisburg should not be split up. This should be a nonpartisan map. Neither party should be involved in the creation of this map. There will be quote and quote winners and losers. The real winners should be that the votes will be represented more fairly.

absolutely unacceptable.

Why is the 6th district getting chopped up again? This is crazy.

This redistricting proposal is a travesty. I cannot imagine an honest reason why Camp Hill would be removed from most of the rest of the West Shore and Harrisburg would be divided other than to dilute Democratic votes. To divide them this way is to disregard the common interests and the shared commerce of the West Shore and East Shore. It would be more reasonable to follow the county lines when drawing district lines, I think. Dividing cities and their bedroom communities on political maps impedes community improvement efforts and destroys community cohesion. This is a sorry and cynical piece of work which has been presented to citizens without shame for its blatant display of partisanship.

Why are Districts 6 and 5 being chopped up and gerrymandered once again? The same argument about gerrymandering the maps for the 2010 census figures applies here right now. Why is Area 5 grouping a rural area like Southern Chester County with two heavily urban areas of Delaware and Philadelphia? What do they have in common, other than to dilute the particular characteristics of each area? Please stop breaking counties up into several areas, and doing this to several counties at at time. Keep counties together. What happened to the much-vaunted intent to keep districts contiguous and compact? This does not accomplish this at all. In fact, it looks as ridiculous and bare-faced as the Goofy kicking Donald Duck map that everyone sententiously pronounced as severely gerrymandered. Stop it! Chester County should be its own district, and not chopped up over 4 or 5 counties!

Greater Harrisburg should be in a single district because the region shares concerns.

As a West Hanover Township resident, I'm happy to see our municipality is not split between districts. However, I fail to see what Chambersburg and so far away have in common with Harrisburg. Clearly Harrisburg and it's surrounding suburbs share more common interests. Suburbanizing municipalities bordering the Susquehanna and it's tributaries share many common concerns. I think the transportation corridors that meet in Dauphin County result common problems. Dauphin County should not be split up in this manner.

I live in Horsham Township MontCo. I am not happy that district 1 lines cut up my township into a jigsaw puzzle. My township and others surrounding the former Willow Grove Naval Air base (Warrington and Warminster, for example) share common serious concerns about our water supply polluted by PFAS contamination from Air Base activity. The derelict Air Base property needs to be cleaned up before any development of a township center, business park, shopping and new housing can take place. I want our three townships to be kept together in the new US congressional district. Since Bucks County needs to annex parts of Montgomery Co to cover the required number of people, the border of District 1 should encircle all of Horsham township, including the airbase property, and also include Hatboro so the Hatboro-Horsham school district is not split.

Unacceptable. No need to bring Lebanon into this. Pure Gerrymandering

State Rep. Sharif Street created this map to make a safe district for him. It is utterly despicable. Please do not approve this map. Also I don't understand why Chester, Delaware and South Philadelphia has anything in common. Same goes to Harrisburg! Why did you split Harrisburg in to 2, it should be in the same district.

8 and 9 are clearly examples of gerrymandering. The Scranton, W-B, Hazleton communities share common issues, problems and populations…they should be represented y the same member of congress. Additionally, putting Rep Cartwright in the same District…a now heavily Republican district is a boldfaced attempt eliminate a current incumbent Democrat. This map is a farce.

As a resident of Harrisburg City, I can't wait to be represented by whoever the fine, fine folks of Perry, Juniata, Mifflin and Huntigdon Counties -- we definitely have the same interests and motivations when we go to the polls. This map is a clear power grab by the GOP as they appeal to the lowest common denominator and ignore the will of the majority of the American populations. It's tough when you win one popular election in the past two decades.

I'm stunned. Annville is divided in half? Why? What does North Annville have to do with Berks County? I'm trying to find an rational for the way this is drawn, but I'm at a loss.

I dislike this plan and believe that this is a classic case of manipulating voting districts to benefit political parties.

While Northampton County, where I live seems fine, the state overall is still not fairly represented.

I thought that in a democracy the voters were to pick their representative not the other way around. I realize you broke up Chester county to dilute our vote, but I have an idea, how about you leave it alone, it was fine the way it was, and you earn our votes. Our country is being gerrymandered to the point where we are forced into rule by the minority. I get it white guys, you are losing your power. That is called democracy.

The proposed Republican map chops Chester County into two congressional districts, putting Congressmember Chrissy Houlihan in a new district that at best could be described as leaning Republican. At the same time, it leaves Republican Congressmember Brian Fitzpatrick’s district largely intact and, perhaps, even a safer Republican seat. The proposed new map, like the extremely gerrymandered map the state Supreme Court threw out, stretches the Houlihan district into three counties adding much more of Berks County and parts of Lebanon County, making the district more challenging for Representative Houlihan to be re-elected. As you may remember, prior to our current map, the district that was home to most of Chester County's voters was one of the most gerrymandered districts in the country and this proposed Republican-drawn map takes us back in that direction. This is not acceptable.

Glad to see that Lykens Township and Gratz Borough are in the same district, as I live in Lykens Twp. but receive my mail at a post office box in Gratz. However, our neighbors in Lykens Borough, Elizabethville, and Berrysburg are in a different district. All of northern Dauphin County should be in the same district. As drawn, district 11 runs from Lykens Twp. in the north all the way south to the Maryland border, and includes the city of Lancaster. It is a very oddly shaped district.

Shame on you. Further gerrymandering. From the party who says the Dems stole the 2020 election, if you don't have the popular votes, just cheat by redrawing lines. Get the crazy people out of the business of elections, everyone's vote should count and be powerful Republicans and Dems alike.

Please get serious about not proposing gerrymandered maps. If you use the 2020 actual vote for Biden vs Trump, this map would still skew the Congressional vote for the GOP. We are watching, and this cheating is un-American.

Willistown Township should not be broken into two districts. We are currently in one district (6) but this map proposes putting part of the township in district 5.

The chair announced the criteria (zero population deviation and minimal splits) after he selected the “winning” map. The Holt O map does an impressive job of solving a mathematical puzzle. Unfortunately, 0 population deviation and no precinct splits force districts to be drawn with distorted shapes and in ways that just don’t make sense. These criteria also make incorporating community input impossible. And if the criteria (0 pop deviation and 0 precinct splits) stay in place, the map will act like a house of cards. The map will completely fall apart if revisions or tweaks are attempted. By not clarifying the criteria earlier in the process, the chair ensured that there would be only one map to choose from… that scenario makes about as much sense as having only one candidate on the ballot. If the chair is serious about these criteria and since creating a map that meets these unbalanced criteria takes MANY hours and since a 0 pop deviation 0 split map can not be revised, a computer program needs to be written to spit out all the possible maps that fit these criteria. Then the legislature could pick the least offensive map. (And then next time, save some tax $--there’s no need to have regional hearings if no one is listening.) If the chair changes his mind and decides to be flexible about either population deviation or precinct splits, then other maps that reflected community input should be considered by the committee.

Once again, a sliver of Montgomery County is carved away from our county to accommodate a particular party. When will the defined borders of counties be maintained? Maddening!

Let's try something completely different. Keep as many Counties whole as possible with NO relation to where they are located on the map. Do the map by population(as close as possible) starting with putting the smallest counties population centers all together in one voting district getting close to the 750,000 or so with NO thought on where they are located.

Proposed redistricting would not accurately represent the communities within the area, would disenfranchise many voters, and would not benefit underserved demographics within the proposed new district.

America is on a precipice, and the lunatic fringe is winning out. Veracity and character have been laughed at and driven out of the Republican Party, instead of praised and encouraged. It’s unrecognizable!

I live in Bedford County. This proposed map separates us from the other central Pennsylvania counties east of the Allegheny Front. It also divides the local geographic area where I live -- the Broad Top. Bedford County has much more common interest with Blair, Fulton, Huntingdon and Centre counties than with the south-western Pennsylvania counties. There are natural boundaries in Pennsylvania which create common economic and social interests based on the land itself. Congressional Districts should respect those natural boundaries so that we can elect someone who knows us and our land.

It makes no sense to divide the Harrisburg area into three different congressional districts. It makes even less sense for Harrisburg City to be placed in a district that goes far to the west and mostly rural. Dauphin, Cumberland (at least the West Shore) and Northern York Counties are a community of interest and should stay together as in the current configuration. These types of issues are more important than trying for exact population equality. The population numbers are constantly shifting and are already different from where they were the day after the census.

The December 9th hearing of the House State Government Committee utilizing the congressional map created by Ms. Amanda Holt illustrated the hundreds of hours that Ms. Holt and other volunteer mapmakers have invested. I have lived in the same Middletown precinct, dauphin county for 47 years and in 2011 was troubled by a small slice of town being sent to a Lancaster County state representative which., totally confused voters. Middletown has more in common with Harrisburg city than the city of Lancaster city. Designate the state capitol’s county, Dauphin, one which should NOT be split. Utilize Cumberland and York counties to add representation. as practicable and allowing some small deviation so compactness and preserving communities can be prioritized. Dauphin, Cumberland and York counties are impacted by hbg international airport, Amtrak, the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, and tmi. Grouping of Harrisburg area voters with some of the most rural areas of the state is a clear effort to create un-representative congressional representation. It is important to maintain an intact Dauphin County Susquehanna River -Pa. route 230 corridor which contains a major transportation hub to Harrisburg/surrounding areas, has common interests in recreational, environmental, water and river/tributaries. The Dauphin County River communities of Harrisburg, Royalton, Middletown, Highspire, Steelton, has a diverse representation of racial and ethnic persons. The Susquehanna river -Pa. route 230 corridor, Dauphin county has major institutions that have strong federal ties: Harrisburg area community college, Penn state Harrisburg, UPMC Harrisburg, Penn state Hershey medical center, Harrisburg international airport and Three-mile Island. One member of congress in dauphin county keeps all the Dauphin County school districts, boroughs, cities and townships together, speaking to one congress person ‘s staff which will be more effective than several congress person’s staff. Let’s make the county where the pa. state capitol is located a county that has one congressional member just like the counties of somerset, Lancaster, Fayette, Juniata, Adams, Blair and Fulton to name a few that are so fortunate. In Summary: do not split dauphin county, add representation from York and Cumberland counties. What is next? Who decides how to respond to the LOCAL citizens concerns in this every ten-year process? We need a plan, drawn up by a non-partisan independent panel not a plan created by one of the political parties, to favor one of the political parties. Hopefully Fair Districts PA.( www.FairDistrictsPA.com) will continue to thrive and wrestle this issue back to the people for 2030 with help from Draw the Lines Pa. and other organizations seeking fairness at the ballot box.

This is ridiculous.

The districts as they are drawn make no sense except to those that support extreme gerrymandering in hopes of destroying democracy and continual rule of the minority. Do you have no shame? Don't answer that; your actions speak louder than the denials you'll voice. Trumpers/Republicans, you that have never done anything but to build to destroy. You play with our world like it's your own little toy. Like Judas of old, you lie and deceive. You want your cult constituents to believe a civil/world war can be won but there are many that see through your eyes and I see through your brain like we see through the water that runs down our drain. You fasten all the triggers for the brainwashed to fire then you sit back and watch when the death count gets higher (COVID, school shootings, poverty, no healthcare). You hide in your mansion encouraging so many to die. You've created the worst fear that can ever be hurled; fear for the children brought into this world. Just know you’re not worth the blood that runs in your veins. You may say I’m a liberal or that I’m unlearned, though I may be there is one thing I know, even Jesus would never forgive what you do. Let me ask you one question, is your money that good? Will it buy you forgiveness; do you think that it could? I think you will find when your death takes its toll all the money you made will never buy back your soul. And I hope that you die and your death will come soon because we’ll follow your casket so we can watch while you're lowered down to your deathbed and then stand over your grave to make sure you are dead. –Bob Dylan

I am a resident of Penbrook, Dauphin County located in the proposed district 13. Penbrook is part of suburban Harrisburg. District 13 extends from Harrisburg to Altoona to Chambersburg and includes large rural areas, including Perry, Juniata, Mifflin, Huntingdon, Franklin and Fulton Counties. People living in Harrisburg and its suburbs have very little in common with these rural areas. It would make more sense for Harrisburg and its suburbs from Hershey to Mechanicsburg to be in one district. The proposed district 13 and surrounding districts are designed to protect incumbent congressmen.

(The text below is also in my uploaded PDF file.) I am a resident of Camp Hill Borough, Cumberland County. The proposed “Citizens Map” would move Camp Hill from Congressional District 10 to District 13. Although the available map images are difficult to interpret, here is what appears to be the impact on Camp Hill if the redrawn District 13 is adopted as presented in this map. It would separate Camp Hill from its closest neighbors in Cumberland County: Lemoyne, New Cumberland, Hampton Township, and Lower Allen Township. And it would put us into an elongated DIstrict that crosses over the natural boundary of the Susquehanna River, then extends north to Northern Dauphin County, then west back across the Susquehanna River back to Perry County, up to parts of Union County, then southwest through all or parts of Snyder, Juniata, the rest of Perry, the western part of Cumberland, then Adams and Franklin. This is an egregious violation of any fair minded definition of Camp Hill’s fair district representation in Congress. And it defies credulity to believe that such a split in our natural community of interests and neighbors in Cumberland County is being drawn this way for any other reason than selfish partisanship by protecting the current District 10 Representative to Congress. It would reward this Republican Representative by carving out those portions of his current District that have recently registered and voted majority Democratic, allowing him to keep the portion of current District 10 more favorable to a Republican, with predominately Republican registration majorities. Meanwhile Camp Hill is being effectively quarantined into a redrawn District 13 that is overwhelmingly composed of a Republican registration majority. Come On! Please do not continue Pennsylvania’s legacy of being dubbed among the most gerrymandered states in the U.S. Our population drop, with its loss of a Congressional seat, is mostly due to a loss of our young people to other states. If Pennsylvania does not want to continue shrinking in its Congressional representation, and its relevance, we must create a more open and welcoming political environment. Attracting new, 21st Century businesses and their jobs to Pennsylvania depends on keeping and attracting the young. But we are losing that vote: our young are voting with their feet. Stop this, please! Nicholas Giordano 793 Arlington Road Camp Hill, PA 17011

Dislike

This process must be NONPARTISAN. In this morning's Inquirer, the map shown gave us 10 Rs and 7 Ds. WHY? There are more DEMOCRATS IN PA than Republicans. The previous gerrymandering was obscene: 13 Rs and 5 Ds. Fortunately, the PA SC ruled that it was unConstitutional and it was redrawn to 9 and 9. Now they want to do it again.

dislike

We need independent redistricting, not more partisan gerrymandering.

Hi, I live in Delaware County. Part of Philadelphia is now in our District and I am furious about it. Philadelphia has much different needs and political views and its track record is terrible. It cheapens our vote that now the large number of residents in Philadelphia will dominate the voting in our District and decide policy. Suburban Delaware County is totally different form Urban SW Phildelphia. How would Montgomery County react to a portion of Philadelphia be forced into their county and weakening their vote? Interesting that did not happen. I am strongly opposed to any Part of Philadelphia be put on our Delaware County Congressional District. Its unfair and wrong to do so!!! Thank you for hearing my opinion.

Dauphin County should not be carved up 3 ways. My area is lumped in with Perry County when we have more in common with Hershey. I object to this map.

One has to question the intent of those who carved up Chester county as they did. Not only did they take the southern portion of the county and apportion it with Delaware county, but they split Willistown township into 2 districts. In addition, taking the borough of Downingtown and a few municipalities west of it, and including the area with district 5 defies logic when looking at the composition of the area. The representation needs of that area are in line with those in he surrounding communities of Exton, West Chester, and Coatesville in district 6. Instead the Downingtown area is being aligned with the inner suburbs of Upper Darby, Media, etc. I find this new district map to be irresponsible in that it carves up the county in ways that seem illogical and, more importantly, unfair in terms of the representation of the electorate.

Why can't this be simplified where the lines either include entire counties or school districts instead of splitting things?

It is obvious that this map was drawn to isolate the major cities, and their minority populations, to ensure GOP dominance in future elections. South Central PA, with the tri-cities of Harrisburg, Lancaster and York, are each isolated and combined with large swaths of rural, white GOP, dominated areas to ensure a majority GOP vote in these areas. The people of PA deserve to have an independent commission draw a map that will not be slanted toward one party.

District 5 is a mess - looks like we are going backward, not forward.

I don’t like that Dauphin County has been split up to exclude Harrisburg in order to dilute Democratic voters. This is an example of gerrymandering in order to unfairly favor unpopular Republican candidates!

I fell being so close to Saxonburg, Pa 5 miles away that Cabot, Pa should be put back in district 16 Mike Kelly's district like it was before. Being in Glenn Thompsons district has no offices near Cabot, Pa. I tend to agree with more Mike Kelly and his offices are closer to Cabot, Pa which can better serve us with our concerns living near Butler, Pa which is only 10 miles away.

We need a fair plan, drawn up by a non-partisan independent panel.... not a plan created by one of the parties, to favor one of the parties! So, throw this one out, and use an independent panel!

It is ridiculous that Harrisburg, the seat of PA government, is being cut out of Dauphin county and lumped in with rural counties. How can anyone think the person elected to represent this district will be able to speak for these two very diverse populations? This is a very obvious attempt to dilute the voice of the minority, predominantly Democrat, population of Harrisburg. Let's do better!

It appears that District 1 crosses into northern Montco. If it crossed further south in Montco it could also move into parts of NW Philadelphia which would provide much better racial balance. As it is--I'm dismayed. It still feels very gerrymandered.

We still have not learned the order in which the House & Senate SGCs are prioritizing criteria. We don’t, in fact, know the criteria the HSGC is using to decide which map is the best for their purposes. Citizens have commented on their interests for months and these comments do not appear to be much heeded. Zero population deviation and a goal of no splits appears to have wrung any good from Amanda’s map. She herself doesn’t think prioritizing that criteria at the expense of all others is particularly useful since it badly hurts the rationality and reasonableness of a carefully drawn map that balances competing criteria. While residents of no county would choose to be divided, I must side with Rep Diamond is his indignation about the careless way District #6 tramples his school districts and divides township and municipalities. Rep Schmitt is less sympathetic, but his cause is just. I live in Chester County and believe Districts #5 and #6 are hideous in the extreme. I have seen Carol Kuniholm’s map and it is calm, clear and rational. Why choose Amanda Holt’s map when a superior one is available? It will be very hard to tweak Amanda’s draft map, those of us who have tried have discovered, particularly with such stringent criteria as zero population deviance and no splits. It may require starting again from scratch. Some citizens in PA now have many years of mapping experience and would be pleased to help broker a solution.

I think the committee needs to publicly discuss all the maps and transparently discuss how and why they chose this one. I prefer the map submitted by Draw the Lines. It had zero population deviation , much better compactness scores and more competitive districts. This map was not discussed at the hearing . Why? I think the committee needs to consider all the submitted maps, and certainly vote on all the zero population maps . I favor competitive elections and the Draw the Lines citizens map produces far more competitive congressional districts.

I dislike how District 14 is spread across so many varying geographic regions. This is not compact. Greene, Washington, Fayette, and Westmoreland counties are much more related to the greater southwestern PA region through everyday life than Bedford and parts of Somerset counties. District 14 is much more regionally in common with parts of Indiana, Armstrong, Butler, Beaver and Allegheny communities. Btw, love this website. It's a great, transparent way to provide and see feedback.

I dislike the splitting of my township, Willistown Twp, Chester Co in this proposal between 5 & 6..

Willistown township should not be split as proposed. Residents of the township have common interests and need to be represented by common representatives.

Splitting Willistown Township is a thinly veiled attempt to engineer votes. I cannot think of another single reason why this may would be redrawn this way. I am a strong dissenter.

I find it strange that the 11th district includes the far northern reaches of Dauphin County but not the much closer areas of Lebanon County (that are part of District 6. Not to mention spreading the 13th district from Harrisburg to Altoona is a bit suspicious, when there are much closer areas that are otherwise represented by the 10th district. Plus, some of these districts have bizarre and abstract extensions reaching far into other counties and districts. I'd like to see the district shapes more compact. I also find it hard to believe every proposed district has exactly 764,864 or 764,865 residents. Every district need not be perfectly balanced. Though not as egregious as previous decades, this map is clearly gerrymandered to divide and dilute urban population centers in eastern, central, and south-central PA.

Not only does this map fail the constitutional tests, but just a a quick glance evinces obvious gerrymandering in the dispersion of mid-state cities.

* District 7 (my district) seems OK. However, some of the others (5, 6, 10, 11) are jigsawed and appear to be gerrymandered. * There are virtually no deviations from the target population; is it necessary to be this fine? What is the threshold? I'm guessing that if you allowed a deviation of +/-76 (.01%) you could smooth out a lot of those lines.

This appears to be gerrymandering again. Leave Chester county and Willistown intact as the PA Supreme Court did in the last redistricting. Allow for representation that serves the people not the politicians.

Proposed map does not meet constitutional criteria of compactness and contiguity.

Dislike proposal!

i do not like how dauphin county is split up. there is no reason the city of harrisburg should be grouped with perry county and not with the rest of dauphin county. the hershey, hummelstown, and middletown area have alot more in common with harrisburg city than the city of lancaster city. harrisburg area will not have the correct representation if it watered down by the rural population in Perry, Juniata, Mifflin, Huntington, franklin, Fulton, Blair counties.

I believe that there are more registered Democrats in PA than Republicans. Any division that reverses that representation is wrong. When I look at associated partisan lean of districts, there is a Republican lean. This would be the opposite premise to “fair districts.”

The worst aspect of the statewide map is the proportionality of the map, which I would consider very poor. There is not equal representation based upon the proportion of Republicans to Democrats. As a result, the competitiveness is also very poor. Compactness is quite a bit better than the above two categories and would consider it somewhere between poor and just OK. Minority representation, while not as bad as the first two categories listed above, I would still consider as poor and comparable to compactness. The best aspect of this statewide map is the splitting of districts, which I would consider as OK.

I don't like the way some of these districts, including the NW corner of my district, 11, meander to accomplish political gain. They should be strictly based on geography, whereever possible falling exactly along county lines. Seeing a preliminary map already chopping up counties to accomplish political gain before the legislature even gets their hands on it is not what voters want to see.

This map shows disrespect for voters. It appears that the map is intentionally designed to split up areas with common interests in order to maintain incumbents. It's outcome has the outcome to weaken our democracy because the opinions of many citizens are intentionally marginalized by separating them from other voters who share their values. You can do better than this, Pennsylvania!

The map divides the city of Harrisburg from the statistical and economic areas of which it is a part, i.e. Lancaster, York and Cumberland Counties. It essentially isolates Harrisburg and overwhelms it with rural areas going south and west to the Maryland state line, effectively disenfranchising its voters. The map should respect the economic and social ties of the community. This one does not.

I am concerned that this map was chosen without input from Democrats who comprise a significant minority in the state house -- and a majority of registered voters. For that reason, it's disturbing that this map is weighted toward the GOP. I support Governor Wolf's standards that include a map that reflects the preferences of Pennsylvania voters for at least an attempt to make our congressional delegation representative of our state. Governor Wolf has also called for competitive districts to allow for changing voter preferences. I suspect that this is the Legislature's opening bid, and I hope it will not be the final map. At least the Senate map is expected to be a bipartisan effort.

Dislike.

Dislike

Why split ChesCo in that manner? Absolutely ridiculous to have the Coatesville, Caln, Thorndale, and Downingtown areas drawn like that!

It does not make sense to me to split rural counties between congressional districts.

The lines are clearly drawn to achieve a specific purpose rather than to keep representative communities together. I am firmly against this map as drawn now.

This is total BS! Leave it the way it was! Don't split Willistown!

dislike

Process: (1) Chair Grove says he looks forward to receiving citizen testimony on the preliminary map and using that to make changes to the map. But he had his committee spend months holding hearings beforehand to gather citizen testimony, and all that has now gone down the drain. (2) Who chose the preliminary map? In the email announcement I received, Grove said the committee had selected it, but he also announced that a vote would be taken on it several days later. So it was not the committee that selected the map. Chair Conklin later said he had been left completely in the dark. This is not transparency, openness, or collaboration. Results: (1) I disagree with the limited criteria Grove announced he had used, but even if those are accepted, he did not choose the best map based on them. Several citizens had submitted maps using the same criteria that were MORE compact, created FEWER splits, and were less biased in favor of one political party. (2) Grove announced ahead of time that the law required a population deviation of zero. This is not true, and he knew it, because he had received professional testimony contradicting his assertion. Insisting on zero population deviation of zero is a hypocritical way of introducing political bias into the map.

The only thing that should matter is if the Dem/Rep voting statewide matches the congressional delegation proportion.

Districts are to be drawn so as to be compact, contiguous, and equal in population. This map looks like only one criteria (population) was used. The others need to be considered as well. Frankly, it looks like gerrymandering to me in the guise of equality. Else, why are there so many 'fingers' jutting out in the borders and the splitting of communities? It needs to be redrawn in so as to meet the constitutional requirements.

Dislike the division of the PA 6th Congressional District. I vote in EVERY election.

I lived in Willistown for 20 years. I do NOT want to see any changes made to the district lines.

I call shenanigans on what this does to Chester County. A map that splits Downingtown from Coatesville and Exton, that pairs Nottingham with SW Philly and Paoli with northern Lebanon County, is a self-evident abomination.

Splitting Lebanon County makes no sense. The county is small and all residents should be represented by the same elected representatives. The best grouping is to be part of a district that cover both Lebanon and Lancaster counties.

Splitting Willistown makes no sense.

Again, Cumberland County is divided between multiple districts. This fails to maintain the integrity of existing political boundaries (in this case counties). We have on county government structure. Why can we not have one congressional representative? This map shows a lack of respect for Cumberland County voters.

Splitting Willistown Township fails to adhear to traditional principles of breaking apart pre-existing political subdivisions (city or county lines)

Except for purposes of gerrymandering, it makes no sense to place the citizens of Harrisburg, some of its West Shore suburbs, and Hershey in separate congressional districts. Moreover, the city of Harrisburg has nothing in common with the vast stretch of small town and rural Pennsylvania that would comprise the bulk of the 13th District.

Do the right thing! Do not split townships and local areas apart for political gain. I strongly oppose redrawing District 6 for partisan reasons, especially dividing Willistown Township.

So the general Harrisburg area is split into 3 districts? And Harrisburg city is included with counties like Fulton and Juniata (looks like) and not Cumberland, York or Lancaster? This makes no sense from the perspective of a community of interest and clearly splits an area that tends towards blue. Every attempt should be made to keep Harrisburg with its more urban/suburban neighbors and not some rural counties. I also don't get why zero population deviation was the primary goal. The data used for this is several months old anyway, people move all the time, so to me, having this goal as paramount vs. keeping like communities together and compactness doesn't make sense. Hard pass, try again. This one is just DUMB!

It seems very odd that the greater Harrisburg area is split like this. If the split were just across county lines, then I would think, "I would like too see it all together, but that seems reasonable." The way it is now is quite concerning. I don't think Camp Hill should be split from neighboring towns in Cumberland county.

Northern York County should be part of the often used “Harrisburg, Hershey, Carlisle” demographic area. The district should reflect that as well. This area does not belong with the entire York region.

Chester County should remain within one district with any additional areas added to the county to reach the appropriate number of people required for a district.

For a constituent from Upper Hanover Twp. to make the trip to their congressional representative's office, it would take (given the current location of the congressional office) at best an hour's drive one way, $9.60 (easy pass) turnpike toll or w/out, $20 toll, and roughly $20 in gas. With the density of population in Bucks in the lower county, it makes sense for the congressional district to continue to remain in the area it currently does. A great disservice to the people in the proposed northeastern communities of Mont. Co. to be added in as this map currently suggests.

This is a disgrace.

Upper Perkiomen School District, a small somewhat rural school district, is already split between two counties, and the proposed redistricting map would split its representation between two different congressional districts as well.

It is a disgrace to split communities and their voting power to try and control the outcome of an election. This is the abuse of our democratic system by a minority willing to do anything they can to stay in power. End this gerrymandering once and for all.

This is clearly an attempt to silence certain peoples vote. Stop being so sleazy and let everyone vote!

Stop gerrymandering!

This is obviously gerrymandering and needs to stop!

Another obvious attempt to gerrymander away the will of the people.

There is no reason for the 6th district to range more than 100 miles through three counties in a clear attempt to gerrymander heavily suburban Chester County with very rural Lebanon and Berks counties. In addition, the map carves out densely populated Chester County boroughs such as Downingtown and throws them into culturally different farming communities. From my house I could drive west and pass through both the 5th and the 11th districts and travel for 90 miles fully in those districts to reach the westernmost part of the 6th district. The end result is several SE PA districts that will make it impossible for those representatives to adequately understand or serve their constituents.

This map fails regarding compactness. Small municipalities such as Willistown Township should not be divided.

By the PA constitution, districts should be compact, contiguous, and equal in population. This district dramatically fails the constitutional test of compactness. It is unconstitutional. I live in Willistown Township. It is ludicrous to propose splitting the township in to two different districts.

Congressional Districts should be arranged by location to ensure the common needs of the people are met. This map is drawn to hand this congressional seat to a republican. That’s not how democracy is supposed to work. It’s sleazy and cheating.

By the PA constitution, districts should be compact, contiguous, and equal in population. This district dramatically fails the constitutional test of compactness. It is unconstitutional.

6th district appears to be gerrymandered against the incumbent Dem. Keep ALL of Chester County in the 6th. The shape of this proposed district is worse than the old 7th Goofy kicking Donald Duck.

I am in the proposed 6th Congressional District. I have lived in Willistown Township for 35 years. I also had a cabin in Bethel Township, Berks County for 20 years. I can promise you that the challenges that folks in Bethel face are nothing like those faced in Willistown. This map will make sure that no one's needs are met. Berks County folks need representation that understands their challenges and strengths. The same for Chester County folks. Also, municipalities should be kept intact. There is no good reason, other than a potent political agenda, to split municipalities in two. Big NO to this map.

Do not let the Republicans get away with this Gerrymandering. They just care about winning any way and Democracy, what is that? Willistown should not be in 2 different districts.

Do not redistrict. Leave current lines alone.

District should be left as before. Willistown should not be divided.

Carving up Willistown? My neighbors have been pulled into another district. Don't make these changes.

Leave District 6 as it is currently drawn now; do not change it.

Leave District 6 as it is currently drawn now; do not change it.

Gerrymandering is an unfair way to win votes and is destroying our democracy.

Stop the gerrymandering or loose democracy

I do not want our district to be gerrymandered out and have my vote not be counted properly.

I vehemently oppose splitting up Willistown Township in this blatant example of gerrymandering!

Are you kidding me? I live in the borough of West Grove. And now I'm seeing the district expand into Philadelphia. Why? I want my congressional district to stay in the county. I don't want to be represented by someone from Delaware or Philadelphia county.

I understand the census causes changes every 10 years, but the foundation of these districts should be common interests and concerns, not a scheme to prefer one political party over another. It's clear from this map that the intent is to break up groups of voters by simply carving into the older districts, rather than considering the needs of the people these districts represent. :(

Why is Downingtown siphoned out of Chester County? Why is Willistown Township divided? This map is a blatant example of gerrymandering districts to suit the Republican Party.

This new map seems to put very Republican counties like mine and Bradford County into a district so that Democratic votes in Rep. Cartwright's district are watered down. Like maps of the past that our PA Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional, this map appears to be trying to go backwards to gerrymandered maps that unfairly create minority rule in a state pretty evenly divided and not majority Republican. In fact, our state is more Democratic than Republican. Our district maps should reflect COMPACT communities that are fair and non partisan.

The 6th district went from all of Chester county and a sliver of Berks county to half of Chester county, half of Berks county and half of Lebanon county. The PA Republicans couldn't overturn the 2020 election so they've gone back to their tried and true dirty trick of gerrymandering. The PA Supreme Court did a great job with redistricting last time as we had the most competitive districts in decades. Looks like we need them again.

Looks like gerrymandering.

The number of split counties and municipalities in this map is absurd.

Why split Willistown in two? Why add a chunk of Lebanon County? This really looks like an attempt to rig elections. Kindly save us all time and leaving Chester County in one district.

I pay willistown and Chester county taxes. No no to gerrymandering!

Really, dividing a township?

No gerrymandering. Let the voters choose the politicians not vice versa.

I don't like gerrymandering!

Very bad! Chester County should remain in one district.

Leave it alone!

There is no reason to split Willistown Township, 6th district, in half. The Gerrymandering that is going on in this state and others is horrifying.

There is 0 reason why Dauphin county should be split like this except for a partisan reason on the behalf of Republicans, The current PA-10 is only about 5,000 citizens short of the needed population, and it only makes sense that it remains so.

Disagree with redistrict map for district 6.

This new proposed gerrymandering map ofth 6th district is a travesty. I absolutelyisagreewththis map

There is no greater threat to our country than the current makeup of the republican party. The same people who would scream and yell about this country becoming a Marxist communist country are the same people who actively attempted and cheered on as Trump supporters tried to overthrow our government based on the big lie!

Analysis of the Republican Holt map By Brian A. Gordon, Esq. (215) 939-1441 Briangordon249@gmail.com Below is a district-by-district analysis of the Republican Amanda Holt proposed Congressional map. Overall, the drafting reflects the following patterns: (1) the elongation of districts east to west in order to pick up more rural Republican performing territory toward the center of Pennsylvania; (2) cracking and submerging concentrations of Democratic performing territory in overwhelmingly Republican districts (Coatesville, Wilkes Barre, Harrisburg); and (3) unnecessarily non-compact edges of proposed districts. These jagged edges can be good faith efforts to achieve equal population but can also mask partisan gerrymandering or personal gerrymanders. More importantly, allowing jagged non-compact edges erodes the principle of compact districts and defeats the emergence of a judicially manageable standard to end partisan gerrymandering. The 1st congressional district consisting of Bucks County and Montgomery County follows a pattern of selecting rural territory in a partisan manner. The drafter started with the townships along the northwestern edge of the border between Montgomery County and Bucks County rather than the middle or the southeastern end of the border. In doing so, the drafter was able to add reliable Republican voting territory in the north and west of Montgomery County to the First congressional district. The solution would be to add townships starting with middle of the Bucks-Montgomery County border and add townships in both directions until equal population is achieved. Then, only one township needs to be split to create exact equal population. The 2nd congressional district is a natural democratic-performing urban district. There is an odd piece of Philadelphia which has been added to Montgomery County seemingly for no reason whatsoever. The piece of Philadelphia is a reliably Republican-performing piece of Philadelphia and should be stricken from a remedial map as non-compact and creating an unnecessary split along the Philadelphia County boundary. The Solution would be to return the wards in northeast Philadelphia to the 2nd district and bring the southern border of the 2nd district a few blocks north. The 3nd congressional district is a natural democratic-performing urban district. There is a non-compact piece of SW Philadelphia that was added to the 5th district. The solution would be to return the non-compact piece of southwest Philadelphia to the 3rd district. The 4th congressional district is a mirror of the partisan selection of townships to make the 1st district more Republican. There is an odd piece of NE Philadelphia which has been added to Montgomery County for no apparent reason. The piece of Philadelphia is a reliably Republican-performing piece of Philadelphia and should be stricken from a remedial map as non-compact and creating an unnecessary split along the Philadelphia County boundary. The solution would be to add townships from Montgomery County starting at a midpoint of the Bucks Montgomery County border and return the wards in NE Phila to Phila County. The 5th congressional district is non-compact and should be declared unconstitutional. The 5th appears to be elongated from east to west. The 5th begins in Southwest Philadelphia then adds all of Delaware County and includes a piece of Chester County. The drafter deliberately adds Downingtown and Coatesville to the 5th Districts as a Democratic vote sink. In doing so, the drafter packs Democrats into the 5th and cleanses Democrats from the 6th district. The solution would be to start with the Delaware County-Chester County border and add townships layer by layer until equal population is achieved. Then, only one township needs to be split to create exact equal population. At a minimum, the Court should eliminate the hook of territory that cracks off Downingtown and Coatesville and adds it to the 5th district. The 6th congressional district on the southern border is a mirror of the non-compact edge of the 5th district. The drafter deliberately adds Downingtown and Coatesville to the 5th Districts as a Democratic vote sink. In doing so, the drafter packs Democrats in the 5th and cleanses Democrats from the 6th district. The other problem is the non-liner drafting of the Chester Lebanon border. The solution would be to start with the Delaware County-Chester County border and add townships layer by layer until equal population is achieved. At a minimum, the Court should eliminate the hook of territory that cracks off Downingtown and Coatesville and adds it to the 5th district. The Court should also correct the jagged Lebanon border by adding townships and boroughs along the Chester-Lebanon border in a layer-by-layer manner until equal population is achieved. Then, only one township needs to be split to create exact equal population. The 7th congressional district is non-compact and should be reformed. The district was elongated from east to west rather than being more compact by adding townships in layers along the Lehigh-Berks County border. The solution is to add townships along the Lehigh-Berks border in a layer-by-layer manner until equal population is achieved. Then, only one township needs to be split to create exact equal population. The 8th congressional district is non-compact and should be reformed. The drafter breaks off a democratic-leaning piece of Luzerne County and adds it to the 9th congressional district. The drafter misses an opportunity to make the 8th district more compact by keeping Bradford Township in the 9th and adding as much of Luzerne County possible to the 8th. The real problem with this proposed district is the cracking off a democratic piece of Luzerne County in a nonlinear and non-compact manner and burying those Democratic votes in an overwhelmingly republican 9th District. This non-compact line both cleanses Democratic votes out of the 8th District and buries those voters in the overwhelmingly Republican 9th congressional district. The solution would be to add as much of Luzerne County as possible to the 8th and return Bradford County to the 9th, making both the 8th and the 9th more compact. The 9th congressional district is the mirror image of the eighth congressional district Gerrymander. By including Bradford County in the 8th and much of Luzerne County in the 9th, the drafter cleanses democratic votes from the 8th and adds them to the 9th where they will not have any impact on future elections. The solution would be to add as much of Luzerne County as possible to the 8th and return Bradford County to the 9th, making both the 8th and the 9th more compact. The 10th congressional district is fairly well drafted. The drafter errs in adding townships along the Cumberland County border in a non-compact manner. Allowing this to stand would erode the possibility of creating a judicially manageable standard by requiring all districts to be drawn compactly in the first instance in order to deter any possible partisan drafting. The solution to improving this district would be to add townships along the Cumberland-Adams-York border in a compact and linear manner by using up all of the townships along the Cumberland County border before moving to the next layer. The 11th congressional district is non-compact and should be declared unlawful. Portions of Lebanon County are cracked off and added to the 13th, where they are diluted in an overwhelmingly rural Republican District. The proposed 11th excludes Harrisburg and its suburbs and adds those votes to a conservative 13th district where they will not be able to elect or influence public policy. The solution would be to add the southern half of Dauphin County to the 11th district and add townships along the entire Lebanon Berks border rather than taking a jagged cut into Lebanon County. The 12th congressional district has nonlinear drafting in both Potter and Butler Counties. The problem is that even if a non-compact border is done innocently in one instance to equalize population, the jagged edges can be used to mask partisan drafting in other cases using the excuse of searching for a township with an ideal population. By using a layered approach to equalizing population, the court will create and reinforce a judicially manageable standard to evaluate and correct non-compact drafting. The 13th district is the mirror image of the gerrymander of the 11th district in Dauphin County. The drafter chose to add Harrisburg to the 13th, where the Democratic votes would disappear in an overwhelmingly rural conservative voting territory. The solution would be to add the southern half of Dauphin County to the 11th district. This would make both the 11th and the 13th more compact and make the 11th a more competitive district. The 14th district has a nonlinear border going through the heart of Washington County. The drafter also adds a noncompact piece of Cambria County to the 14th district. In doing so the drafter cracks off Johnstown and adds its Democratic voters to the rural 12th District. The drafter also creates an unnecessarily noncompact edge in Butler County. The solution would be to strictly add municipalities in layers along the Somerset-Cambria and the Armstrong-Butler borders until equal population is achieved. Then, only one municipality needs to be split to create exact equal population. The 15th congressional district appears to be well drafted. It is a naturally democratic district containing the heart of Pittsburgh and eastern and southern Allegheny County. There are some unusual shapes at the western edge of the 15th congressional district which require further analysis. The 16th congressional district has non-linear drafting in Butler County. The problem is that even if a non-compact border is done innocently in one instance to equalize population, the jagged edges can be used to mask partisan drafting in other cases while stating that it is being done to equalize population. By using a layered approach to equalizing population, the court will create and reinforce a judicially manageable standard to evaluate and correct non-compact drafting. The solution would be to add townships to the 12th district in a layer-by-layer manner using the up the whole border before reaching in for more territory. The 17th congressional district has non-compact southern border going through the heart of Washington County. The problem with allowing a non-compact border in one instance is that it invites partisan gerrymandering in another instance. The solution is to begin at the Washington County border and add townships and municipalities along the entire border before moving inward to equalize population. Conclusion The Republican Holt proposed map contains many subtle gerrymanders and shows a pattern of non-compact drafting of the borders of proposed districts. If the above steps are taken, partisan drafting will be minimized, and a standard of compact borders will be honored thus supporting the emergence of a judicially manageable standard to defeat partisan gerrymandering. By Brian A. Gordon, Esq. (215) 939-1441 Briangordon249@gmail.com

The ratio of the total length of the borders and the area of the new district is a good measure of the contortions used to make this a biased and unfair district map.

Dislike

Pa 06 is currently made up of Chester County. The proposal splits it among Chester, Berks and Lebanon. It makes no sense and stretches too far for one representative to cover.

While this map achieves population equality, it fails on the more important criteria voters expect, especially compactness. Many of this map’s districts (4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13 and 17) feature odd shapes including unexplained “tentacles” which separate communities. For example, the proposed 6th district in which I would reside twists from suburban Chester County through Berks County and into rural Lebanon County and brings to mind the infamous 2011 7th district. Indeed, this map trades “Goofy Kicking Donald Duck” for what appears to be a “Galloping Camel”. Specifically, there is no justification for extending a tentacle of the 5th district deep into the 6th district to capture Downingtown, East Caln, Caln and East Fallowfield. These communities belong with the others that stretch along the US 30 corridor in the 6th District. In addition, Williston Township should not be split into District 5. If population requires some tradeoffs along the Chester/Delaware County border, it makes better sense to include Chester County’s Thornbury Township in the 5th district in order to keep all of Cheney University in one district (in this case the 5th). Also, why put West Fallowfield Township in District 6 separating it from similar communities in western Chester County? There are better places to draw the lines to assure population equivalence. Other districts lines in this proposed map are problematic. Why is greater Harrisburg split into three districts (10, 11, 13) with the largest piece including the city peeled off to the overwhelming rural 13th district that stretches nearly to western Pennsylvania (Blair County). I lived in the western part of this district for many years and can tell you that that region’s needs and interests have little in common with those of Dauphin County. Similarly, Lebanon County is cut up in odd ways to fill in the 6th and 11th districts. What do Annville, Bethel, and Union Township have in common with Reading, West Chester and Phoenixville? Not very much. And why is a finger of Greater Harrisburg precincts (the Steelton Wards along Front Street) dropped into District 11? These divisions give the appearance that efforts were made to dilute Greater Harrisburg votes as much as possible. The same could be said for the 9th district around Wilkes-Barre. What was the rationale (other than population equality) for putting Luzerne and Larksville in the 9th rather than Plymouth and Ross Townships? And in the 17th district, fingers capture Buffalo, Cokeburg, Green Hills, North Bethlehem, and South Strabane taking them from the 14th district and communities with which they share economic and historical ties. These concerns lead me to a critical observation. The Committee’s fixation on exact population equality in all 17 districts is misplaced. The frequent references to court requirements used to justify this priority misrepresent actual rulings. The courts do allow for some modest differences in district populations (up to .75%) if map makers can provide a suitable explanation for the differences such as keeping communities of interest together, ensuring districts are compact, and satisfying requirements of the Voting Rights Act. Thus, I urge the House State Government Committee not to use population equality to justify splitting communities resulting in districts that perform badly when compared with fairness measures and give the appearance of gerrymandering. To that end, the proposed map scores poorly on these widely accepted measures – including compactness, minority representation, and splitting – and should be rejected or dramatically amended.

Dislike

This is bullshit. What a disgusting, OBVIOUS attempt at another power grab by the GOP. How could this cut up of the 6th district possibly make sense?

I dislike a change to my voting district!

The contorted lines of the 5th Congressional District are as blatantly gerrymandered as they were (as the 7th Cong Dist) 10 years ago. Shame!

No!

The way that NEPA has been slashed apart across multiple districts is appalling. Crossing the Susquehanna to grab suburbs of Wilkes Barre for the 9th is insane, and clearly benefits one party. Communities of interest, such as the Wyoming Valley in NEPA are sacrificed for the political gain of one party.

Stop this nonsense.

How does it make sense to split Willistown between two districts?

This is GERRYMANDERING AGAIN! I vote NO to this map.

This is a disgraceful attempt to violate the state Supreme Court's ruling about congressional districts and patently violates the state constitutional requirement of a contiguous district.

Portions of this map make little sense unless one is paying absolute adherence to no population deviation at all. Mt. Lebanon, Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair should be part of a suburban District 17, not partially sandwiched in with the City of Pittsburgh. In addition, adding more sections of rural Washington County instead of adding more suburban areas of Butler County like Cranberry into the 17th district makes little sense. The split of Butler County seems haphazard and should be revisited. No map is perfect, but blind adherence to population deviation instead of balancing other factors like compactness, contiguity and communities of interest seems unwise. I suggest that you revisit this map and make adjustments.

Stop this blatant attempt to disenfranchise us in Willistown Township. This attempted gerrymander of Chester County is disgraceful.

This is gerrymandering, again! This is against PA State law. Voting districts may not be manipulated for political gain. Voting districts are supposed to represent local communities. The redistricting is illegal, undemocratic and unAmerican. We should not return to gerrymandered voting districts! Everyone proposing this redistricting shoudl read the article here: https://www.wwdlaw.com/pennsylvania-supreme-courts-historic-ruling-in-the-pennsylvania-gerrymandering-case/

This is a blatant attempt to disenfranchise the people of Willistown Township, and to gerrymander Chester County as well

Why has the 10th district been changed so much? It was an excellent way to draw the Harrisburg-York metro and it's ridiculous to see it become sliced and diced up into multiple districts. This entire map feels like an attempt to make sure politicians get to have comfortable seats in congress without actually having to compete with others.

Why is District 6 stretched out into such a weird shape? Looks artificial and contrived. Makes it obvious that there are hidden agendas being served. All districts should be as compact and simple as possible, and ideally respecting existing county, township, and school district boundaries. For example, all of Chester County should be one district. --Fred

Leave District 6 the way it is. Do not change it.

This is gerrymandering!

This map is your brain on political crack. Any questions?

Mr Grove, I object to this map . Please explain how this is done without political influence. "Holt’s map was introduced by Grove because it was drawn without political influence" In a city where Republicans are our numbered 7 to 1, you propose to remove the strongest Republican ward in the 2nd Congressional district with the most Republicans, 8698 to be exact and add them into the 4th congressional district THEN add more Democratic in N Philly to the already heavily Democratic advantage. Kindly reject this overkill .

This redistricting proposal is a disgusting attempt to steal future elections with minority rule.

Why can voting not stay within the county's boundary, it makes no sense to change them. Unless whoever is doing it wants a win for their party. Leave it alone!!

Leave District 6 the way it is.

It makes no sense that the proposed 5th district includes a thin arm of Caln, Thornbury, & Downingtown. This violates the principal of compact districts and appears to be an attempt to gerrymander Chester County.

The current 6th district is composed of like communities. The new 6th puts together communities with very little in common. Please retain the character of our current district.

do not gerrymander us. win your elections fair and square.

Just want to point out that most of Southern Chestrer County is a swing area. When you add 3 philly wards it makes it unfair and Im a member of the party. I don't want Philly in my district. Chester County should be united because its such a battleground we will always have good competitive races.

If this kind of gerrymandering is in the final result, take them to court.

Chester county is finally united after the most bizarrely disjointed gerrymandering -- and now we see it split again. In what universe does the southern part of Chester belong with Delco and South Philly? And the northern part with Lebanon county? It's a big enough county to make up its own district, as at present, with the Reading part of Berks or with part of Montco.

This map is an attempt to dilute the minority heavy population of Dauphin, Lanc, York counties and lump them in with Republican strongholds. It’s unfair and not representative of the true population. Why don’t republicans try winning by being popular -- oh wait, they can’t. Cheating is not the way.

The redistricting of Camp Hill makes no sense. I am strongly opposed.

Pulling Camp Hill from the 10th and gerrymandering it to the 13th, pulls us away from the capitol region (our neighboring communities that share similar needs and interests.) It pushes us in with rural and distant counties of Fulton, Sullivan, and Huntington. Let's not waste time questioning possible motivations. Instead look at the shape of this part of the map and analyze how it DEFIES the principle of keeping communities together. Congrats on getting most of the "number" part right, very cleaver, hard work. But this part of the map that the House is proposing is clearly in violation of proper REPRESENTATIONal government.

Districts 5, 6, and 11 are a clear attempt to gerrymander to dilute voters. Each of these districts cross at least 3 counties and seem to unnecessarily split smaller communities of interest, such as pushing Downingtown and neighboring communities into the 5th while the rest of the nearby communities are in the 6th. This map seems to be driven not by creating groups of related communities but instead to create districts that match a particular political outcome.

Splitting the tri-county (Cumberland/York/Dauphin) area into 3 seats is a grave dis-service to the 717 area. Especially the weird cut out of Cumberland and highspire. This is further creating divisions. Not good

As much as possible districts should respect city, county, and township boundaries, especially in populated counties which do not need to be sliced across county lines. Districts 5 and 6 are egregiously gerrymandered. There is no reason why all of Chester County cannot be in one district, and there is no reason to run gerrymandered slices across Chester and Delaware counties.

Why are we spreading Delco out across an hour long drive- possibly longer during rush hour- when rural Chester County and Delco have NOTHING in common and are not part of the common community!

None

Splitting East Pennsboro Township and winding through downtown Camp Hill is a clear effort to divide this growing community. Additionally, the grouping of Harrisburg voters with some of the most rural areas of the state is a clear effort to create un-representative congressional representation. PA-10 as it is more accurately groups Harrisburg and the West Shore, and districts should not divide this tightly woven community.

Other than meeting the criterion for equal numbers of voters, this map fails to meet other criteria for compactness and fair representation for minorities. Using this map, Berks County shares a district with two other counties, Schuylkill and Chester, while another large part of Berks County shares a district with two other counties, Lehigh and Northampton. Keep Berks County intact! Absolutely NO to this map.

My Congressional District - District 6 is not contiguous and looks heavily gerrymandered. The entire Chester County should be part of District 6.

The proposed map appears to neglect federal mandates for minority representation. It appears tp completely neglect Pennsylvania's constitutional requirement for compact districts and that of preserving municipal and geographic boundaries. Additionally, an honest map of congressional districts would reflect the general political affiliations across the state and I am very doubtful this one does. A great big NO on this one. Stick to federal and constitutional guidelines.

This section of Northeast Philly belongs with the rest of Northeast Philly, not with the far-flung suburbs!

Why is this little corner placed with 5, but disconnected from the larger part of South Philly that was placed with 5?

Why are you splitting my township (Willistown Township) into two Congressional Districts? Are you trying to create a logistical nightmare?

Kutztown should be with Reading, not with Allentown/Bethlehem. That is the feedback that has been given from numerous citizens

I'm tired of the Sarver area being at the edge of our congressional district. I feel that we have been forgotten by our congressman by being on the outskirts. I feel that we should instead be part of the 16th or 17th district.

Splitting the capital region, and very specifically the West Shore of the capital region into two districts is absolutely ludicrous. Camp Hill has extraordinary overlap of services and interests with its contiguous communities (it's sandwiched between them for god's sake!), but has been carved out and shunted into the 13th District, leaving the rest of its neighboring West Shore communities in the 10th District. Also, as was argued, rightfully, at the last redistricting, Harrisburg City also shares extraordinary overlap of services, cultural, business, educational, personal interests, as well as major infrastructure, with the West Shore communities, and should remain in the same district with them. This map is an egregious attack on the political, social, business, and environmental well-being of the capital region, and completely ignores the communities of interest shared among those who live there.

I see many counties being split again where there is absolutely no need. The split up in Dauphin, Washington, Butler, etc look suspicious. The devisive nature of districts leaves me to question intent. I would be more comfortable if parties agreed to a bispartisan governing board to agree on maps in the future.

SERIOUSLY? This is clearly being gerrymandered with precision to hurt Democrat Houlahan and help Republican Fitzpatrick. Stop this nonsense. We the People want FAIR DISTRICTS. We want our votes to count equally. Elected officials should have nothing to do with drawing these maps.

District 5 is a gerrymandered abomination!

We have lots of places on the map where we have jigsaw edges that presumably come from striving for perfect population balance. Why sacrifice compactness and clean lines for "perfect" population, when you know that Census data is imperfect -- probably more in 2020 than in several decades -- and will change over time? It seems very arbitrary and sacrificing more important values to try to get an artificial and necessarily false result. This makes the map a kind of lie.

Having Altoona and Huntingdon be in the same district as Franklin County, eastern Cumberland County, and even Harrisburg makes no sense at all.

This map disregards all citizen input in favor of cherry-picking the solo work of a single mapper who happened to produce a result convenient for the legislative majority party. Amanda's a good puzzle-solver, and I respect the work she's done on redistricting reform, but Pennsylvania is not just a bunch of numbers to assemble blindly with no regard for what the people behind those numbers want. Hundreds of us spend thousands of hours working to help you understand how to draw a good map for PA, and you listened to none of it, except for her. You need to explain why this one person's work is so much more important than everything all of us told you, and if you can't explain that, in detail, then this cannot be the map for Pennsylvania. See my more detailed (preliminary) analysis at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZVtoKhDwF8gM82Jt-aPOQiylPE0Bc9GNXTto_nCxy28/edit?usp=sharing

The treatment of NE PA on the Preliminary Plan is puzzling, and disappointing. As I testified before the HSGC on October 18th, the current 8th District combines two closely linked communities - the Wyoming Valley and the Poconos - in a district that is also compact and highly competitive. The preliminary plan redraws CD8 is a way that would negate all of those laudable attributes. The draft map removes the southern end of the Wyoming Valley, and replaces it with rural counties that share few common interests the SWB/Hazleton metro area or the Pocono recreation/commuter rim. Of course, the District must absorb new territory as the Commonwealth contracts from eighteen districts to seventeen; but removing an integral part of the existing district and adding incongruous, far-flung rural territory appears capricious. The Committee is aware, from other testimony, of the tension between the Northern Rim counties and the more developed areas that comprise the current CD8. The Supreme Court drew this boundary well in 2018. I see no good reason to put Rep. Meuser and Rep. Cartwright in the same district, when both seem to represent their respective constituencies well, and when the interests of those constituencies are profoundly divergent. I respectfully ask the Committee to preserve the current character of CD8, along the lines shown in the attached image.

District 6 is obviously gerrymandered. Berks County, Lebanon County and Chester County should be separate districts. The Republicans seem to ignore the reprimand and correction to their obscenely gerrymandering of 2010 districts. Other areas of the state have also been tampered with for political advantage. Why can’t our state officials just DO THE RIGHT THING. I am disgusted. NO to this map.

As a resident of the 6th District I'm disgusted by this '1st' draft. It splits Phoenixville Boro into two districts. I don't feel counties should be split up and certainly not townships and boroughs. This is completely political and not acceptable.

Any map that is drawn and put forth with partisan intentions should be immediately disqualified. While this map isn't as horrific as the complete mess we had after 2010, it still is done to subtly give a significant Republican advantage in an essentially 50-50 state.

For the past two election cycles, district 10 has been a swing district, which has been in everyone's best interest, but separating Harrisburg, Carlisle, and York city like this ensures that the entire midstate will be dark red. You've got to give democrats a semblance of hope in central PA, and suppressing minority influence like this is not how to achieve that.

Horrible how this splits Cumberland County, the fastest growing county in Pennsylvania. Also, as far as the Capital region overall is concerned, looks very much like a partisan, gerrymandered incumbent protection hatchet job. Glad this is only the first draft. Fix it.

Cowardly. Please draw a Democratic gerrymander. In order to make the first a safe Democratic district, exchange the redder parts of northern Bucks County for bluer parts of the inner Philadelphia area.

The splitting up of Greater Harrisburg is as blatant a partisan gerrymander as could have been put forward by the House. This map is a clear attempt to work PA back towards the embarrassing level of gerrymandering present in the map that was struck by the state Supreme Court in 2018; but it is the drawing and quartering of South-Central Pennsylvania in particular - a region facing substantial political and demographic change which is completely ignored by this map - which makes my eyes water and my heart sink. Shame on the House for having the chutzpah to seriously propose this map.

Biden won all of Pennsylvania's electoral votes so its only fair that Democrats win all of Pennslyvania's congressional districts.

There is no reason to split North Penn school district like this. The current map does this, and many of the people I know in the area dislike the fact. Since district 1 needs to gain population, putting North Penn and Hatboro-Horsham school districts into PA-01 is the obvious and logical way to do so. Instead, for some reason, it stretches out to Pennsburg, which makes no sense whatsoever. There are much more major issues with this map that need fixing (the Harrisburg area split 3 ways for no reason, district 6 reaching into Lebanon county, etc.), but I hope that future, more fair, drafts take care to keep North Penn whole.

The jittery boundary between Districts 16 and 12 in Butler County are completely nonsensical even from a gerrymandering perspective. If you were to split Butler County between two districts, it would make more sense having the southern Cranberry area in the 17th district, since that area identifies more with the Pittsburgh area, is made up of more people with interests to the Pittsburgh area, and then have the rest Butler County in District 16. There is no reason to have slivers of the county in District 12.

A truly depraved pedocon gerrymander separating minority-heavy Harrisburg, Lancaster, York, and Lebanon from each other entirely, putting each city in a different Republican vote sink. was CONFIRMED PEDOCON Mike Folmer responsible for this sick and twisted decision

"...not a map drawn by legislators...". I agree. It looks like it was drawn by campaign professionals who deliberately packed districts to maintain partisan advantage.

Are you kidding me with this map??? It's a disgrace and obvious gerrymandering to keep the GOP in power. I live in Harrisburg, and this map dilutes the city and surrounding area in favor of the GOP. We have nothing in common with the counties to the north and west of the city! Throw this map in the garbage and start all over again. If you can't do this task with honesty, integrity and transparency, please resign and let those who want to do this redistricting the right way take over.

This map has some obvious meandering districts. Clearly it is not meant to be as fair and neutral as it could be. I left Texas in part to get away from gerrymandering and having one political party entrench itself in control instead of letting the voters deicide their representatives.

Dauphin County should not be broken up. I live in Middletown, a suburb of Harrisburg. We are a community, readers of The Harrisburg Patriot News and Pennlive. This map makes Middletown and Derry Township a minor appendage of Lancaster County. Looks like partisan gerrymandering.

One more thing what is going on with districts 10 and 13? Gerrymandering! it is so obvious! sorry Harrissburg is going blue except it and take your lumps work hard like we do in NE PA where it can be very GOP favored we won the seat there. If the democrats can do that in a GOP area the GOP can do that in a much more competitive area. Also I agree with everyone from chester county whos commented!

DO NOT VOTE FOR THIS MAP ALMOST AS BAD AS GOOFY AND DONALD IN CHESTER COUNTY! READ ALL MY ISSUES PLEASE!I have many issues here. I really don't see a need in any imagination that Lebanon County needs to be split that is a GOP gerrymander. According to the data, we lose a minority-majority district and it was actually possible to gain one which wasn't done. They could make the Pittsburgh district this other minority majority. Another gerrymander is in North Eastern PA taking away a competitive seat and giving republicans a 13 point advantage. Finally Once again Chester County is split. which is just ridiculous. one of the federal requirements is to minimize the splitting of counties. They did this with Lebanon, Allegheny, and Chester when it was avoidable. Now there are places like Philadelphia and Montgomery where it is very hard to avoid splitting. Ok, I get that. I suggest as a self-called map nerd the following. Unite the Octara School District. I live in Avon Grove School district and I was one of the people who had Meehan when every other municipality in the district had Smucker. Its a bad thing to do. So you can either move Highland and Londonderry to the 6th district or move West Sadsbury, West Fallowefield, Parkesburg, and Atglen to district 5. Same thing with West Chester, Downingtown and Unionville SD. Move Newlin township to 5 as it is one municipality not 5. For West Chester and Downingtown a lot of those areas are battlegrounds. Put them both in the 5th it makes it more competitive and there is another issue see below. Another issue Willistown township is split by precinct which is against LACRA rules that millions of Pennsylvanians support. Another thing about the 6th district its not compact. there are 14 counties split (5 of them are fine because there are more people then the maximum allowed again I'm fine with that. NYC is split like 15 times its ok). Also 3 wards of Philadelphia in the Delaware and Southern Chester County district how stupid can you all be GERRYMANDERING! if you take my advice and move the West Chester, Downingtown, and Unionville school districts into district 5 you can take those wards out. But seriously move the 3 wards in the 5th district out and put them with the third. keep philly with Philly. You Philly's 35th ward which is another thing of gerrymandering. You split Horsham gerrymandering especially when there is no need! Ruscombmanor is split GERRYMANDERING! LOOK AT YOUR LITTLE THING IN LUZERNE WITH DISTRICTS 8 AND 9 IT LOOKS LIKE A DUDE WITH A SQUARE HEAD WITH A SKINNY NECK LOOKING STRAIGHT UP AND WEARING A TOP HAT. IT LOOKS RIDICULOUS GET RID OF THE ENCLAVE! Logan is split in Blair make it the same Allegheny (the town) is also split make it the same. Stony Creek in Cambria is split heck Cambria is so small just make it all the same district not all the numbers have to be the exact same amount of people keep it within a thousand. What the heck is this lets connect woodblocks phone game going on with Butler and Armstrong County? I'm not kidding that's what is looks like. get rid of that. Canton and Washington are split in the same county. you say oops for all these splits I'm calling BS this is the republicans gerrymandering the map. there are many more municipality splits. I live in SE PA so I know Delaware, Chester, and Philadelphia fairly well. so really just take my advice for changes there. BUT NO MATTER WHAT VOTE NO!

At first glance, this map looks good... And then you look at the southeast. What the heck is going on in my district of PA-06? What in the world is happening here? Was this district feeling lonely and needing to reach out across multiple counties? Was it an experiment to see how distorted we could make this particular region while keeping the rest of PA districts looking even and cohesive? It just looks like PA-06 fell apart and didn't know how to put itself back together. A definite NO to this one. There's no reason so many different counties and areas should be included in one district. If there's one thing I've learned throughout the years of studying these maps, it's this: If the resulting district has a million corners and turns and looks more like a funky puzzle piece than it does a representation of a piece of land, it's definitely not drawn correctly.

This map is evidence that the PA GOP has completely abandoned even the pretense of fair representation, cornerstone of democracy. I live in PA-06, and the GOP's efforts to dilute my vote is apparent. This map should be rejected by the Governor.

Hatfield should be with Montco, not Bucks and with the rest of our North Penn School District.

District 6 is evidence of obvious gerrymandering. NO to this map.

As someone who would be in the 6th district as drawn, I take issue with the district stretching from the heart of Chester County all the way up to Lebanon. There really is no COI between the two areas, and is incredibly non-compact. I also take issue with the nearby 5th district, which would connect rural, southwestern Chester County with south Philadelphia. Again, there is no COI between the two areas and it is incredibly non-compact. A Chester County-based district could conceivably be connected with parts of Delaware, Montgomery, Berks, or Lancaster Counties while maintaining Communities of Interest and compactness, so this level of contortion seems unnecessary, especially given how messy the lines are drawn in the Lebanon/Harrisburg area already are.

We should not be splitting the Harrisburg Area this way. A resident of Harrisburg has much different concerns than rural Hundington. This is an obvious Gerrymander and is a shame to the Commonwealth

I do not understand why Lebanon County is split ESPECIALLY Annville Cleona District! It makes no sense to split communities up so much.

A transparent and sick move to make the Bucks County seat as Republican as possible while attempting to claim partisan fairness as Dems have just barely carried it

As a resident of Chester County, I have an issue with the way the county is split. I understand it may be necessary to split Chester County given its size and location, and that a north-south split may make sense, however, I do not think it makes sense to haphazardly split the Downingtown from the rest of the Upper Main Line. Downingtown has far more in common with eastern Chester County than places like Parkesburg and Cochranville do. For the sake of compactness and maintaining COI’s, I would urge that the split of Chester County be reconsidered. If a split is necessary, perhaps separating the more suburban east, which is more connected to the Philadelphia metro area, from the more rural west, which has more in common with the rural areas in Lancaster and Berks Counties, would make more sense.

This is not a fair map. Particularly with district 6, which looks like another obvious Republican gerrymander. NO to this map.

Splitting the capital region, and very specifically the West Shore of the capital region into two districts is absolutely ludicrous. Camp Hill has extraordinary overlap of services and interests with its contiguous communities (it's sandwiched between them for god's sake!), but has been carved out and shunted into the 13th District, leaving the rest of its neighboring West Shore communities in the 10th District. Also, as was argued, rightfully, at the last redistricting, Harrisburg City also shares extraordinary overlap of services, cultural, business, educational, personal interests, as well as major infrastructure, with the West Shore communities, and should remain in the same district with them. This map is an egregious attack on the political, social, business, and environmental well-being of the capital region, and completely ignores the communities of interest shared among those who live there.

This section of District 10 is not compact enough.

There is no need to divide Lebanon county at all for population, and efforts should be made to keep the county together.

The 6th stretches from the Chester/Delaware border up to the Dauphin/Lebanon border, across three counties. This is not compact and represents parts of three different counties. It is also involved in five municipality splits.

The odd shape to include Downingtown in the Lower district, and the very clear exclusion of Coatesville is not compact enough.

Union and Snyder Counties should be part of the same district as Montour and Northumberland. While they are separated by the Susquehanna river, these counties are communities of interest, and should be kept together. They are traversed daily for employees of Geisinger, and for regular shopping needs.

Grouping rural southeastern Chester County in with strongly Democratic Delaware County is just an attempt to further extend Philadelphia’s reach. Many people in this area have purposefully left Delaware County to avoid liberal policies. Southeastern Chester County is not a suburb of Delaware County.

Here is where population is dwindling according to the PA census - PA 16, PA 17, PA 15, PA 12, PA 9. PA as a whole lost a seat. Therefore, the places that have lost population should assume that lost seat, not the areas that have gained population. PA 6 wants to retain its borders.

Culturally and demographically, District 11 should include Berks County and not district 6. District 6 was fine as it was and Chester County is one of the fastest growing parts of PA, so it should not have its votes merged with rural Lebanon County - that is gerrymandering a la GOP.

I do not like the way district 6 divides not only the school district, but Annville Township.

Please let us just recall which parts of PA have lost population. The red parts. Therefore, the districts presently held by democrats should not be dilutes to give the red parts more power. That is a classic Republican move to usurp power no matter what the voters say. To the extent that we have a democracy in the US anymore, we SAY NO to this map.

There is no sense in dividing the Harrisburg region 4 ways except to ensure that Perry's district, which is a potential democratic district, is retained by Republicans. District 6, which was safe Democrat, has been redesigned to become a swing district. This is obvious work by the GOP to retain power against the will of the voters, as per always.

Splitting Chester County is dilutes the vote of the suburban areas of Philadelphia by placing them into districts that extend way up into Lebanon and Berks Counties. The map also dilutes the Harrisburg suburban and urban areas by melding them with regions that have nothing to do with them culturally, economically or sociodemographically.

The greater Harrisburg area can be much more compact. If the population deviation of 0 is crucial, at least keep it compact. If allowing a minor deviation, then keep it more sensible. Much too much splitting and meandering of lines.

Potter County and Tioga County should be in the same districts. The numbers per precinct out here are not large and it shouldn't be difficult to balance putting these two counties together. The literally advertise together and have a number of connections. They should be in the same district.

This split of the Harrisburg area is atrocious, and seems specifically designed to eliminate any kind of competitive district in the area. This region has experience population growth, yet on this map, has its congressional district drawn out of existence. That doesn't make sense. The current district in place (PA-10) is a good template for what a congressional district in this area should look like. Of course, lines will have to move some to account for population changes, but the attached image is what that could look like. This keeps the communities of interest together and creates a Republican-leaning, but competitive, district, a good representation for this area.

I hate this map. It's better than 2010, but seriously? Crack Democratic Harrisburg? Here's an idea. Use MY map. I have 2 of them, I recommend you use both so that we know who likes which map better. I'm pasting the links right now. I pray we take back the Pennsylvania Legislature in 2022 from you treasonous hypocrites. https://app.districtbuilder.org/projects/5cfd5651-3a74-420c-85a7-e4cb769a66dd https://app.districtbuilder.org/projects/bfd6038b-ce23-45fe-919a-bafe5d93adc7

This map was clearly drawn by someone from the eastern side of the Commonwealth with very little regard for the us in the west. The mapper went out of their way to pack as many reliable Democratic voters into a single district (the 15th) and unnecessarily stretch the previously highly competitive 17th southward, deep into Washington County. I have attached a logical alternative plan that A). keeps the 17th competitive, B). combines areas of greater racial diversity in Westmoreland (Arnold, New Kensington, Rostover, and Monessen) with the urban 15th to keep the less populous Washington County wholly intact, C). does not split a single municipality, and D). keeps Butler and Cambria Counties intact.

It is hard to see how district 5 on this map makes good on the promise to minimize county splits and keep communities of interest whole. In fact, a simple reconfiguration of the 5 county region would allow Philadelphia county to anchor two districts in a compact fashion, while allowing the remaining collar counties to each anchor a district of their own. There is no perfect way to divide a state as diverse as PA into 17 districts, but combining Oxford with South Philadelphia as is done here does not appear to serve any nonpartisan interest.

Dauphin County is pieced into 3 different congessional districts. York and Adams county are whole & Cumberland county is whole except for a few townships. This OVERFLOW should be minimized ! Population losses occurred in the western counties !

Lansdale and North Wales should be in the same district. They are both in North Penn School District and have a number of community ties.

Southern Butler County (particularly Cranberry Township) should be included in the suburban Pittsburgh district (17 here). That part of the county is very tied, both economically and culturally, to the North Hills and Pittsburgh region and should be in the same district of them, not the same district as Erie and Northwestern PA. Accommodating that will require the lines to move and I believe the parts of Washington County currently districted for PA-17 should move to PA-14. The vast majority of Washington County has more ties to Washington than to Pittsburgh/Beaver County and the congressional districts should reflect that.

The Harrisburg metropolitan area should not be divided into three districts. This area is the least compact on this map, and a compact Harrisburg-based district would better represent this area.

Drawing out Cranberry Township and adding in a large portion of Washington County in PA - 17 makes no sense considering most of Norther Allegheny County and Cranberry frequently use each other for amenities and have direct interest in each other. Maybe leaving a Cecil or Peters might be appropriate as they do depend on the Bridgeville and Upper St Clair area for most amenities. The rest doesn't belong in 17 though. It's obvious someone in Eastern PA drew this because no one who lives here would draw 17 this way.

Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair and Bethel Park are all very similar communities. It seems as though they were separated with hopes of making the 17th less Democratic instead of keeping similar communities together.

This is a subtle Republican gerrymander designed to make PA-17 more pink. Note how the map creator uses the river to create the boundary between PA-17 and 18 in the suburbs (moving blue Penn Hills and New Lebanon into 18) but yet keeps parts of northern Pittsburg area north of the river in 18 as well. This is packing, and Penn Hills and New Lebanon should REMAIN in 17 like the current map.

A sick pedocon gambit to carve Harrisburg into pedocon territory to protect sick pedocon Scott Perry

An extremely sick pedocon blotch into Philadelphia as part of a sick pedocon plan to weaken the Dems in the 6th by making the 5th take more territory

A truly sick pedocon gerrymander tail putting Kingston in the 9th

A truly sick pedocon gerrymander carving out the city of Washington

District 6 does not seem as compact as it should be, stretching from Chester county into Northern Lebanon county.

District 11 does not seem as compact as it could be, stretching up through Northern Dauphin and parts of Lebanon counties. Some adjustment needs to be done through this area to make the map more compact.