Washington Post: Voters Are Stripping Partisan Redistricting Power From Politicians in Anti-Gerrymandering Efforts
Washington Post: Voters Are Stripping Partisan Redistricting Power From Politicians in Anti-Gerrymandering Efforts
Voters in three states overwhelmingly chose to overhaul how legislative and congressional districts are drawn, stripping a traditionally partisan exercise from politicians while aiming to create a more level playing field based instead on geography and demographics.
Supporters of Missouri’s redistricting ballot measure hold signs behind former state senator Bob Johnson during an August news conference outside the Cole County Courthouse in Jefferson City, Mo. Amendment 1, which passed Tuesday, requires Missouri state House and Senate districts to be drawn to achieve “partisan fairness” and “competitiveness.” (David A. Lieb/AP)
Colorado and Michigan will create independent commissions to decide the boundaries of congressional and legislative districts after the 2020 Census.
In Colorado, there will be two commissions, one to draw congressional lines and one to draw state legislative lines.
Missouri will now mandate the use of a statistical, nonpartisan model that decides where lines are drawn, as well as the appointment of a state demographer.
The fate of a measure in Utah that would create an independent redistricting commission remained too close to call early Wednesday. …
Voters in recent years have been opting for ways to overhaul how districts are created. In 2010, California voters created a nonpartisan, citizen commission to establish the state’s voting maps. Arizona voters created an independent redistricting commission in 2000.
Kathay Feng, national redistricting director of Common Cause, a nonpartisan grass-roots organization, worked on the California campaign, which is now seen as a model for states that want citizen committees.
“In California, we had a system where politicians went behind closed doors and decided where the lines were drawn and ended up hurting communities — communities of color, women interested in running, people in the way of an incumbent,” she said, noting the issue was long seen as “an insider game, that no one was paying attention to, and we were told that it’s so complicated and regular people can’t understand it. But that’s not true.”