Gerrymandering/Redistricting

10:00 AM on September 3rd, 2021. Location: 300 Capitol Avenue, Legislative Office Building, Room 2C (ROOM TO BE CONFIRMED), Hartford, CT 06106. Now that Connecticut lawmakers have all of the 2020 Census data they need, they’re starting to draw new voting district maps — and if we let politicians rig the process or gerrymander these maps, vulnerable voters will be shut out of our democracy for an entire decade.

“'The important thing is making sure the process is transparent so people understand why the lines are moving,' said Cheri Quickmire, executive director of Common Cause in Connecticut, the election watchdog group..."

Most states count people who are incarcerated at the places where they are imprisoned rather than as part of their home community. This counting method is known as prison gerrymandering, and it distorts our democracy.

Here you can find trainings and resources led by Common Cause national staff designed for all levels, whether you are new to redistricting or a seasoned advocate. Learn how to impact redistricting through a mix of presentations and exercises. You can also find other resources such as recorded trainings, handbooks and public web tools for districting and community identification.

Waterbury will receive the largest boost in representation under a newly-adopted law counting prison inmates as members of voting districts where they lived prior to incarceration. The town of Enfield will see the largest decline under the change.

“Representation is very important. We know that gerrymandering had taken place for years in this country,” Sen. Doug McCrory, D-Hartford, said. “When we do look at data, when we do look at drawing lines that has to be taken into consideration,“ McCrory says.