There is an important way by which redistricting will be different next year than as it has occurred in the past. Technology has advanced to the point where anyone with a web browser will be able to draw maps of their communities – for those states where redistricting authorities must respect communities of interest – or even legal redistricting plans for their entire state.
This innovation will enable greater transparency and public participation in the process. No longer will the public, media, and courts be forced to accept whatever nightmare districts the politicians dream up as being the only ones that could have been drawn. If even a few people can draw redistricting plans for their state, as occurred during a 2009 Ohio Secretary of State redistricting competition, we will have an important yardstick to measure the politicians’ plans against. We will be able to debate the merits of different approaches to drawing districts, e.g., how much we might be willing to trade slightly less compact districts for those that are not biased against a racial group or a political party. And we will likely expose that the politicians’ maps are neither compact nor fair.
We have devised a set of principles for transparency and public participation in redistricting that are the minimum requirements to ensure the public is a full partner in the redistricting process. A number of stakeholder organizations have formally signed on to this statement:
Americans for Redistricting Reform, Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, Campaign Legal Center, Center for Governmental Studies, Center for Voting and Democracy, Common Cause, Demos, and the League of Women Voters of the United States.
You can read more about this call for transparency and public participation in a Washington Post opinion-editorial authored by myself and my colleague Micah Altman.
4 Responses to “Pulling Back the Curtain on Redistricting”
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