Election Reform in Lowell, MA

Two years ago, the City of Lowell was sued because its system of election was said to prevent minority communities from being represented in city government. For example, even though there are 9 members of the City Council—and nearly half of Lowell’s population is Asian or Hispanic—there have only been 2 people of color elected to the City Council in 20 years!

We have two reports, which you can download here:

• Public Report with explanations of alternatives, pros and cons, and some of our findings (non-technical)
• Detailed Report explaining the models we used in our study (technical)

Versions of the public report went out in Spanish, Portuguese, and Cambodian Khmer!

Draw your own districts

To accompany this report, we have added Lowell to Districtr, our open-source web app for redistricting so that anyone can try their hand at drawing a districting plan and to explore the interplay between the structure of a districting system and the demographics of individual districts. Get started drawing districts here.