U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco approved a district map drawn by a University of Alabama freshman, changing two state Senate districts. The changes were made with the intention of ensuring fair opportunities for Black voters in the upcoming 2026 state elections.
Daniel DiDonato, a freshman majoring in political science, proposed six maps following a ruling in August that the previous map violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting practices that give racial minorities less opportunity to elect a preferred candidate.
“I wanted to be a part of the process,” DiDonato said. “I wanted to help shape the process by which Alabamians would get a new state Senate map.”
DiDonato said he submitted his plans because he believed he could fix the voting rights violations while making the fewest possible changes to the current district lines.
“I was fairly confident that my maps remedied the identified violation of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” he said. “I wanted to show that it was possible to remedy the court identified violation while rearranging less and doing less.”
DiDonato said he used Dave’s Redistricting App, a free online redistricting software, and started with the current district boundaries before making minimal changes.
Only two out of the 33 districts were rearranged, the others were left unchanged.
While drawing his map, DiDonato said he intentionally avoided using racial or partisan data and focused on traditional redistricting principles.
“I drew my maps specifically blind to race and party and I focused mostly on ensuring that districts were clean and compact,” DiDonato said.
DiDonato said his map creates one additional district in which Black voters have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice under order from the U.S. District Court.
“Alabama is going into the 2026 elections with more representation for Black voters and with more competitive state Senate districts,” he said.
