Redistricting Report Card

The Community Redistricting Report Card reflects on this redistricting cycle, rating each state’s redistricting process based on community feedback. This report is the product of hundreds of on-the- ground interviews and surveys conducted by CHARGE.

Following the release of the 2020 Census, states and localities re-drew the boundaries of congressional, state legislative, and local government voting districts.

Redistricting is supposed to reflect changes in population and ensure that everyone is fairly represented, so we organized people across the country to ensure that the public played an active role in shaping their own representation.

Learn more about this work and our efforts to create fairer and less partisan processes for drawing districts:

Moore v. Harper – read more about our recent victory in this monumental SCOTUS case that would have had devastating impacts on our voting rights

Read our recently-released report outlining recommendations for reforming the City of Los Angeles’ redistricting process.

Sign up for the Gerrymander Gazette, a monthly newsletter highlighting reform efforts across the country.

In the States

Where has redistricting reform passed?

Common Cause has led the fight to implement reforms across the country that give Americans a voice in their own representation. Democracy activists have successfully pushed for reforms that make redistricting more fair and transparent. Click on a state to learn more about these important victories.

Summary

Citizen Commission – Independent: CA, MI

Citizen Commission – Political: AZ, CO, ID, MT, WA

Citizen Commission – Partisan: AK

Nonpartisan Staff, Advisory: IA

Legislature – Strict Constitutional Rules: FL

Politician Commission: AR, MO, NJ, PA, VA

Legislature – with Advisory Commission: HI, ME, NM, NY, UT

Learn more about our state campaigns to see how you can get involved in your community.

Redistricting Litigation

Common Cause is actively involved in litigation across the county to challenge gerrymanders and defend redistricting reforms in court. Learn more about our efforts.

In Academia

In January of 2019, Common Cause collaborated with Duke University’s POLIS and the Sanford School of Public Policy on the Reason, Reform, and Redistricting Conference. This event brought together some of the top activists, litigators, and academics working to end gerrymandering across the country. Watch video from almost every panel discussion here.

Common Cause’s Partisan Gerrymandering Writing Competition is generating important scholarship and making a difference in court. Common Cause sponsors a writing competition to generate academic papers useful to litigators to make the case that partisan gerrymandering violates the U.S. Constitution. One winner served as an expert witness in Common Cause v. Rucho. After a federal court ruled that Virginia’s congressional map was an illegal racial gerrymander, we collaborated with another set of winners to submit a brief to the court. This brief, the only one of its kind, guided the court expert chosen to redraw districts by assessing the partisan fairness of proposed replacement maps the public submitted.

Next Campaign

Justice and Democracy