Univ. of Alabama Student Redraws Senate Maps, Gets

Daniel DiDonato is a University of Alabama pupil who lately turned 18. Alabama has its statewide elections in 2026, so as a potential voter, DiDonato now has pores and skin in the sport. But even before he did, DiDonato determined to make his voice heard. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Southern Division, ruled in Alabama State Conference of the NAACP v. Allen that the state’s maps, notably in Senate districts 25 and 26, had been in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In August, district court Judge Anna Manasco ordered the maps to be redrawn. 

Because of arguments before the United States Supreme Court in Louisiana v. Callais, in which Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed an amicus transient, Gov. Kay Ivey declined to call a particular legislative session in order to redraw the maps. This left the duty to Richard Allen, a particular grasp charged with overseeing the new maps, and the courts. DiDonato determined he wouldn’t only redraw those maps, but he submitted them to the U.S. District Court for use in the case. DiDonato still had not reached the age of majority under Alabama law, so he filed the maps under his initials. Much to his — and others’ — amazement, District Judge Manasco ordered the implementation of his maps. If absolutely authorized by Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, the plaintiffs, and the particular grasp, these maps might be used in the 2026 major elections in May.

Daniel DiDonato says he’s been passionate about elections since he was a younger baby. He remembers watching the 2016 presidential election as a fourth grader. 

That’s why DiDonato, an 18-year-old political science major at the University of Alabama, labored late at evening and used a free redistricting app to draw six new Alabama Senate district maps, and submitted them, unsolicited, to a federal court in a lawsuit over potential Voting Rights Act violations in Alabama’s state Senate districts.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco ordered that one of DiDonato’s maps be applied in the case. 

DiDonato said in the NewsNation interview video below:

Mapmaking is just one thing I take pleasure in. Maps inform a story and particularly election maps. And I figured that this has been in the news right here in Alabama for the last 5 years. This case finally made it to trial, and a federal court said that Alabama’s state Senate maps unlawfully diluted African-American voting energy in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. When the state had the chance to do one thing about that, the state said, “No.” So, the duty fell to the federal court. I finally determined, nicely, if the court was going to have to decide a map, then I figured I might at least ship in a map so that I might have the chance to at least form that course of.

WATCH:

Daniel DiDonato, an 18-year-old faculty pupil, tells “The Hill” how he reacted when a federal decide authorized his Alabama state legislative map over maps made by political consultants. DiDonato says he joined the trouble to create a fairer map for African American voters in the… pic.twitter.com/Lj2hJLkbQ4

— NewsNation (@NewsNation) November 21, 2025

Daniel DiDonato, an 18-year-old faculty pupil, tells “The Hill” how he reacted when a federal decide authorized his Alabama state legislative map over maps made by political consultants. DiDonato says he joined the trouble to create a fairer map for African American voters in the Montgomery space.

Some classes right here: It does not take a rocket scientist, a legislator, or a court, for that matter, to produce a map. Perhaps this must be the rule. Engaged residents without an agenda are in all probability the best selection to know how maps must be drawn in order to obtain voter satisfaction and bipartisan ends. DiDonato said he didn’t use race as a issue in creating his model.

In the redistricting software program, DiDonato was in a position to disguise partisan and racial data, permitting him to draw the districts without intentional gerrymandering. His objective was to create population equality between the districts. In the end, the districts differ by two people.

“The legal standard is that with state legislative districts, plus or minus 5% is acceptable,” he said. “They try to keep the population deviation between districts as low as possible. One thing that my plan did is I did my best to achieve exact population equality.”

According to correspondence between DiDonato, the particular grasp and Manasco’s employees, DiDonato submitted his plans to the workforce on Oct. 1. He was later invited to a listening to on the maps by Charles Singleton, a clerk at the Northern District of Alabama Federal Court, on Oct. 27. DiDonato couldn’t attend due to lack of transportation.

Despite the fact that DiDonato couldn’t attend the hearings and the shortage of commentary on what he submitted, Judge Mancuso selected his as the map to be used transferring ahead. How far ahead stays in query. Special Master Allen, AL SOS Wes Allen, and the plaintiffs’ attorneys are crucial of the maps. Probably because a faculty pupil who stayed up until 3 a.m. and ate gummy worms for power did the precise heavy lifting and did not even ask for credit. 

Should the SCOTUS justices rule in favor of Louisiana and other states in Louisiana v. Callais, it will render this case moot, since the violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is the premise for these maps in the first place. 

As my PinkState colleague streiff wrote:

The requirement for further majority-Black districts disadvantaged the GOP of at least one seat in Louisiana, as nicely as one in Alabama. A call declaring racial gerrymandering unlawful will open the door to GOP court challenges across the nation and slam the door on Democrat lawsuits looking for to overturn districts because of perceived racial imbalance.

The stakes are high. The left is aware of if racial gerrymanders go away, their capacity to disrupt elections is over.

 Dive Deeper: Federal Judge Rules That Maps for Alabama’s Largest County Must Be Redrawn

Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Key Voting Rights Act Provision

Finally, AL AG Marshall has joined with Texas in their redistricting case, which asserts that state legislators have the suitable under the law to draw their maps as they see match. Marshall is also working for Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s seat (R-AL), so his actions are also being considered through a lens of whether or not he will likely be a fighter for Alabamians. 

Lawsuits, thirsty politicians, and an ingenious younger particular person who says he desires to make a distinction are making attention-grabbing bedfellows. 

Editor’s Note: Unelected federal judges are hijacking President Trump’s agenda and insulting the need of the people

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