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Scope and Content Note

This series consists of approximately 900 city and county maps from local boards of elections collected by the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, apparently as part of the development of a state reapportionment plan. The maps are annotated to show election districts that were current between 1970 and 1980, and some maps were apparently printed by the New York State Judicial Commission on Reapportionment as part of its charge to submit a complete and valid reapportionment plan to the Legislature.

Along with demographic statistics, raw material for such a plan would necessarily include maps of various electoral areas to aid in following county and town lines and to comply with town and block rules put forward in the state constitution as part of the reapportionment process. These maps would aid that process.

Format and map characteristics vary widely with the base maps used; there is little consistency except in the purpose of the annotation. Most often copies of maps produced by city, county, or state agencies for planning, zoning or other purposes were used for annotating, although some commercially produced base maps were used (e.g., Sanborn maps). None of the base maps appear to be originals produced for this specific purpose. In general the base maps show city, village, town or county boundaries, bodies of water, roads, streets, railroads, and power lines, all to different degrees. The base maps sometimes have titles or legends of varying kinds. Scales vary but are all non-metric, usually shown as miles. Handwritten dates are infrequently present, sometimes consisting of statements declaring the map is "valid" as of a certain date. Maps vary greatly in size, from 35.5 x 21.5 cm to 107 x 132 cm.

The annotations showing election districts are drawn and numbered by hand and do not follow any consistent scheme, reflecting the individual methods of their preparation. The markings are usually in color, made by markers or ink. In a few cases wards are marked, sometimes in pencil.