Bloomberg Government: Beaches, Bears, Vineyards, and Pencils: Ballots & Boundaries

Bloomberg Government: Beaches, Bears, Vineyards, and Pencils: Ballots & Boundaries

“Maintaining communities of interest intact in redistricting maps should be second only to compliance with the United States Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act as a consideration in redistricting,” according to redistricting principles outlined by the watchdog group Common Cause.

Political line-drawers in over 20 states are supposed to shape legislative and congressional districts in a way that keeps communities together.

But what’s a community?

In Colorado, the redistricting commission has been asked not to lump rich and poor together. Mississippi‘s only majority-Black congressional district wants to stay that way. And in the foothills of Los Angeles, neighborhoods prone to wandering bears have suggested consolidation with a national forest.

Definitions will become destiny in a process that decides whether representatives can be hyper-focused on a few local issues or if they’ll be expected to champion a wide range of constituent interests. …

“Maintaining communities of interest intact in redistricting maps should be second only to compliance with the United States Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act as a consideration in redistricting,” according to redistricting principles outlined by the watchdog group Common Cause.