Gerrymandering/Redistricting

Thursday's meeting will be open to the public, but Executive Director of Common Cause New York Susan Lerner says the state’s redistricting process has largely been conducted behind closed doors. “The commission, which has held no meeting, after being charged with drawing a new congressional map, has announced that it’s going to meet on Thursday afternoon, and they’re going to vote on a map," Lerner said. "Nobody’s seen it, nobody’s made any comments about it, nobody has been able to provide feedback.” The bipartisan panel has two weeks to agree on a map to send to New York’s Democrat-controlled legislature for final approval. If they can’t agree on congressional lines, Lerner says the commission runs the risk of delaying this year’s primaries. “If the maps aren’t settled and in the hands of the boards of elections to let candidates know where the boundary lines are, we could see a situation where the primary for congress is pushed back to August, which we think is not helpful to voters," Lerner said.

But Gavin Geis, the executive director of Common Cause Nebraska, said the bill is unlikely to be put forward for a full vote before the state’s legislative session ends for the year on April 18. “If the bill did make it out of committee with a priority it would have to be debated on the floor, but that would definitely lead to an extended filibuster,” Geis said in a statement. “So its odds are slim.”

According to Catherine Turcer, the executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Ohio, which is part of the Citizens Not Politicians coalition, the group has trained about 2,000 volunteers to collect petition signatures. “It’s clear there’s this disconnect between what it is that ordinary Ohioans want, and what it is that the state legislature chooses to do,” said Turcer. “There is real interest in ensuring that we have accountable government.”

On Dec. 19, the North Carolina NAACP along with Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit advocating for fair and transparent elections, and a group of eight residents filed a lawsuit against Republican mapmakers, including Philip Berger, Tim Moore and the State Board of Elections, for passing allegedly racially adjusted and rushed gerrymandered maps. Bob Phillips, the executive director at Common Cause North Carolina, said in an interview that minority communities, like the Black community, will not get to choose representation that they see fit and that will impact how and if their communities' needs get met. Phillips, who has been with the organization since 2001, has seen years of gerrymandering, but believes that in recent years the issue has gotten worse. This isn't necessarily a partisan problem, Phillips said, rather a problem of whoever is currently in power. "Twenty years ago, Democrats were gerrymandering, not quite as robustly as they are now because they didn't have the technology for one, but they were in charge of drawing the maps and Democrats at the time had no inclination to consider redistricting reform," Phillips said. "The irony was I was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Republicans in North Carolina calling for redistricting reform when the Democrats were in charge. Fast forward to today and it's reversed."

“Conducting business behind closed doors is unacceptable,” Common Cause New York executive director Susan Lerner said. “Open your doors to the people. The people who live in congressional districts deserve a say in who will represent them.”

Gavin Geis, executive director for Common Cause Nebraska, said the current rules serve as a safeguard that ensures a balanced approach to redistricting, a process that has received heavy scrutiny across the country for over-politicization. "The removal of party registration as a factor in selecting committee members may lead to a lack of diversity in thought and perspective, resulting in skewed representation that doesn't accurately (represent) the political landscape of our state," Geis said.