Reuters: In U.S. redistricting fight, citizens come armed with a new weapon: their own maps

(Reuters) – On a recent evening, Tyler Daye, an organizer with Common Cause North Carolina, hosted an online seminar for residents of the city of Wilson on an important but arcane topic: redistricting.

With the help of publicly available mapping software known as Districtr, Daye clicked through maps of federal and state voting districts, showing how in each case Republican lawmakers in 2011 neatly cleaved the city in two, dividing the largely Black eastern half from the mostly white western half.

“When your communities are split, your voting power and representation is split as well,” he told attendees. “This attacks the very backbone, the very core of our democratic system, which is having the voters, the citizens, picking their legislators. Through this system, it’s the other way around.” …

In states like Missouri and Michigan, activists and residents are submitting hundreds of maps to lawmakers and redistricting commissions. Organizers are employing map software to mobilize citizens against gerrymandering. And some groups are using mapping contests to assemble “citizens map corps” to press their case at the local level.

“It’s almost like a light-bulb moment,” said Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, a voting rights organization. “We feel we’ve been able to reach people in ways we never have.”