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Independent & Advisory Citizens Redistricting Commissions 

What we’re doing

Democracy activists nationwide have successfully pushed for the creation of independent citizen redistricting commissions through ballot initiatives and legislation. Minnesota is not a ballot initiative state and must move a citizen’s independent redistricting commission via legislation and a constitutional amendment.

Common Cause Minnesota is leading the effort to create a people-centered independent redistricting process to ensure Minnesotans finally get district voting maps that fairly and squarely put us first.

Overview

Redistricting is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries that all states participate in after the completion of each decennial census, to account for population shifts. Rules for how this happens and who does it varies by state. In Minnesota, our state constitution bestows that power to the legislative body, making them responsible for re-drawing our voting maps every 10 years.

For six decades our legislature has failed to do its job and move bipartisan maps that fairly put us ahead of self and partisan interests. Because of this, the Court has had to step in and take over the process. The Court’s role is not to represent the interest of constituents who live, work and economically engage within districts; their role is limited to ensuring drawn maps don’t violate any federal or state laws These limitations result in “least change” status quo maps that don’t accurately reflect Minnesotans. The Court has openly chastised the Minnesota legislature for not fulfilling its job of drawing maps that can successfully be passed into law.

Having the legislature draw voting maps creates a huge conflict of interest because they’re drawing lines for their own districts. We’ve seen what’s happened in other states when one party is in power and draws gerrymandered lines to protect or increase their power; we’ve even seen parties working together for a bipartisan gerrymander where incumbents on both sides of the political aisle negotiate to protect their seats – or in Minnesota, they will strike deals accommodating incumbents preference for living at their lake homes. These types of deals are struck behind closed doors with little if any, transparency or public knowledge by impacted voters in those districts.

What are Independent Redistricting Commissions? 

Independent Redistricting Commissions (IRCs) remove the power of drawing our district voting maps from the self-interest of politicians ensuring it is our interests, not theirs, that are centered in the process of drawing our voting district maps.
The key component of these independent citizens commissions is that political insiders are prohibited from participation, eliminating the clear conflict of interest that exists when elected officials or those close to them draw districts.

  • In every state that currently has a commission, except Utah, its commissioners – and not legislators – have the final say in approving districts.
  • In every state that has a commission, except Alaska and Utah, commissions have an equal number of Democrats and Republicans.
  • Seven states have independent commissions that are designed for partisan balance and that give commissioners the ultimate authority to approve districts. These include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, and Washington.

What are Advisory Redistricting Commissions?

A key difference between an IRC and an Advisory Redistricting Commission is that an IRC draws final maps and an advisory commission draws maps that legislators can either disregard or directly influence. In Minnesota, an Advisory Redistricting Commission can still provide guardrails that correct the problem with maps drawn under a “least change” approach taken by the Courts in their very limited role. An Advisory Redistricting Commission would provide the Court with a set of neutral maps drawn by non-politically interested citizens they would review and compare with those drawn by self-interested legislators.

For the past six decades, the Minnesota Legislature has been clear, it doesn’t want to set aside its own partisan interests to put constituent interests first. The best model to address the problem with a legislature that won’t move bipartisan maps in Minnesota is an Independent Redistricting Commission. Annastacia Belladonna-Carrera, Common Cause Minnesota Executive Director
Demand Fair Redistricting in Minnesota

Contact a Lawmaker

Demand Fair Redistricting in Minnesota

Help us tell our legislators that we demand redistricting reforms be centered in community. Legislators are responsible for creating voting maps that accurately represent our communities, but due to partisanship, they haven't been able to work across party lines and draw maps for the good of ALL Minnesotans.

Lawmakers have had years to come together and draw maps for the good of our democracy but they continue to pass this responsibility off to the courts, which results in "Least Change" maps. That means that for decades...

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Related Resources

See all Related Resources

National Report

Minnesota Community Redistricting Report Card

Independent & Advisory Citizens Redistricting Commissions 

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