Category Archives: redistricting

S1 v2: Senate revisits electoral reform

July 28, 2021, 11:55 amelection administration, political polarization, redistricting, voting, Voting Rights ActNed Foley

Washington Post reports on today’s meeting among Senate Democrats to bring forward new version of S1, the For the People Act, building upon Senator Manchin’s compromise proposal. There’s also the possibility of new provisions aimed at election subversion. But there’s… Continue reading

The GOP & the VRA: Frenemies?

July 26, 2021, 7:08 pmDepartment of Justice, redistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActNed Foley

A reader of the blog sent along a link to this article: How to Win a “Long Game”: The Voting Rights Act, the Republican Party, and the Politics of Counter‐Enforcement. Here’s the abstract: ADRIENNE JONES and ANDREW POLSKY examine… Continue reading

NFRPP Discussion of S1/HR1

July 26, 2021, 3:53 pmelection subversion risk, redistricting, votingNed Foley

The Network for Responsible Public Policy last week hosted a discussion on the current status, and future prospects, of the For the People Act, still pending in the Senate as S1 (having been enacted by the House as HR1). Dan… Continue reading

Competitive Districts Part II: Colorado’s Independent Redistricting Commission

July 26, 2021, 11:00 amredistricting, UncategorizedRichard Pildes

Now that I’ve described in Part I how DRA enables assessing a map’s competitiveness, along with other dimensions, I’ll lay out how DRA makes it possible to compare different maps. To do that, I’ll compare the preliminary map for the… Continue reading

Designing Competitive Redistricting Maps: Part I

July 26, 2021, 6:07 amredistricting, UncategorizedRichard Pildes

Colorado’s congressional districts are being drawn by an independent redistricting commission created in 2018 by “Amendment Y,” a legislatively referred constitutional amendment that voters approved. That amendment also specifies the criteria the commission is to use. After specifying that districts… Continue reading

State-Districts Competitiveness Gap

July 25, 2021, 3:52 pmredistrictingNed Foley

Axios has a report on a data project that Election Law at Ohio State (ELOSU) is pursuing. The idea is to compare how competitive the House districts in a state are as a group versus the competitiveness of the state… Continue reading

The latest on battle for electoral reform

July 22, 2021, 7:32 pmelection subversion risk, redistrictingNed Foley

NY Times reports on the divide among Democrats. I continue to believe that the short-term strategy should be a stand-alone bill focused solely on combatting partisan gerrymandering, to test the possibility of getting 60 votes in the Senate. If there… Continue reading

House Hardball, part 2

July 22, 2021, 12:00 pmredistricting, UncategorizedgerrymanderingNed Foley

Nick Stephanopoulos makes some fair points in response to my post on whether, in the absence of a new Act of Congress, the House can or should refuse to seat winning candidates solely on the ground that their districts were… Continue reading

Report on the Georgia hearing; what’s next?

July 19, 2021, 7:39 pmelection subversion risk, redistricting, voting, Voting Rights ActNed Foley

Washington Post summarizes. Given the Republican non-participation, this doesn’t sound like an effective strategy to overcome a filibuster. USA Today reports that Senate Democrats, essentially abandoning S1, will turn instead to VRA reform “this autumn”; if true, this presumably… Continue reading

NJ redistricting: 13 is an unlucky number this time

July 19, 2021, 12:18 pmpolitical parties, political polarization, redistrictingNed Foley

“This is the first time the two parties haven’t agreed on a 13th member for congressional redistricting.” That, for me, is the key quote from this report on the need for the state’s Supreme Court to pick the thirteenth member… Continue reading

Deep dive on Arizona redistricting this cycle

July 19, 2021, 8:07 amredistrictingNed Foley

From Carrie Levine at the Center for Public Integrity.

Good morning. Georgia on my mind.

July 19, 2021, 6:22 amelection administration, redistricting, voting, Voting Rights ActSenateNed Foley

Thanks, Dan, we so miss you at Ohio State, but are glad to reconnect whenever there’s an opportunity. Thanks, Rick, for this opportunity to join the ELB blogging team. As I start, the Senate Rules Committee hearing today is top… Continue reading

“Wisconsin Supreme Court for now reinstates redistricting lawyers for Republican legislators”

July 17, 2021, 6:28 amredistrictingDan Tokaji

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, on opening salvos in the long battles to come: The Wisconsin Supreme Court for the time being reinstated the redistricting attorneys for Republican state lawmakers late Thursday in a decision that divided the justices… Continue reading

“By the numbers: Voting, redistricting wars fought in least-white states”

July 14, 2021, 12:44 pmredistrictingDan Tokaji

Axios: “Texas, Georgia, Florida and Arizona have been at the center of a partisan war over voting rules that could impact voters of color — they’re also among the top 10 states with the lowest percentage of white residents.”