Massachusetts House Legislative Districts (2002) - June 2011
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Overview
The Massachusetts House Legislative Districts (2002) datalayer reflects the state House of Representatives district boundaries as defined by Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 57: Section 4. These 160 districts are those used in the Fall 2002 elections. Names of elected officials are up-to-date as of June 22, 2011. The names of the statewide datalayers are HOUSE02_POLY (polygons) and HOUSE02_ARC (arcs). This replaces the older HOUSE93 layer.Production
Staff at the Massachusetts House of Representatives developed this layer with its contracor, Caliper Corp. (Newton, MA) using Maptitude for Redistricting software. MassGIS appended the 1:100,000 coastline and state outline and added the representative name and party attributes. Final election results were obtained from a "Return of Votes" report (in PDF format) from the Secretary of State.Attributes
MaintenanceThe polygon attribute table has the following items:
ITEM NAME WDTH / TYPE DESCRIPTION REP_DIST 40 / C Name of the district REPDISTNUM 3 / I Unique number for each district REP_FIRST 14 / C First name of representative REP_LAST 25 / C Last name of representative REP_PARTY 3 / C Political party of representative REP 40 / C Rep.'s full name and party Note: The REPDISTNUM item is also found in the Census 2000 Blocks layer, where it may be used for relating demographic information to House districts.
In the arc attribute table, the item OUTLINE is coded as follows:
- 0 = Internal district boundaries
- 1 = State
- 2 = Coastline
Massgis maintains the layer and will make updates as needed.
NOTE (5/4/06): An error exists in the House layer in the vicinity of Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain, Boston. It has been brought to our attention that several streets, indeed a small neighborhood, have been included in the 15th Suffolk District as opposed to where they belong, in the 11th Suffolk. This error occurred because base information that assigned block groups into Wards and Precincts was somehow miscoded, and thus the Wards and Precincts data that was used at the State House to create the House layer are also in error. Until MassGIS can locate accurate linework for this area, we cannot change what the House has engrossed as its official map.
This layer, along with the Mass. Senate Districts, may be viewed online with the Legislative District Browser.