Tag Archives: redistricting
“Allegheny County Council approves redistricting commission”
WESA (NPR Pittsburgh):
Allegheny County Council voted Tuesday in favor of a new process for drawing the boundaries of its own council districts.
New boundaries are drawn for legislative districts after each national census. Under county council’s current rules, that… Continue reading
Republicans Advantage in House Fading
The Morning analyzes how redistricting for Congress is shaping up after the rounds of litigation. Its conclusion: The Republican Party’s advantage is fading.
“If everything goes Democrats’ way, roughly 10 House seats could become meaningfully easier to win. Next year,… Continue reading
Redistricting Battles
The newest episode of Our Body Politic has an excellent segment on Alabama’s redistricting fights. It is clear and accessible, and ends with a stark bottom line:
“The State of Alabama has never expanded the franchise to black voters on… Continue reading
“‘We Have a Right to Put It on the Ballot’: How Organizers Are Defending Direct Democracy”
Bolts Magazine. I see this story as relevant to a basic question that I think is going to confront the field of election law (and, more broadly, the law of democratic procedures) over the next decade or so: the… Continue reading
“Alabama Republicans defend not creating a second majority Black district in court”
Zach Montellaro in POLITICO.
“Hearings over the new map kicked off in federal court in Alabama on Monday, and the state is once again arguing that it is not illegally diluting the power of Black voters. This week’s hearing will… Continue reading
“Lawsuit targets Wisconsin legislative districts resembling Swiss cheese”
AP reports. “Wisconsin’s nationally peculiar practice of detached districts is cited as one of several alleged violations in a recent lawsuit seeking to strike down current Assembly and Senate districts and replace them before the 2024 election. …
“Wisconsin’s… Continue reading
“New Ohio redistricting ballot proposal would end lawmakers’ map-drawing power”
Cleveland.com reports on the effort to adopt in Ohio a citizens redistricting commission (like the kind in Arizona, California, or Michigan), rather than the failed political-insiders commission that Ohio adopted in the previous effort at redistricting reform in the state.
“Why Alabama’s Congressional Maps May Need to Be Redrawn, Again”
N.Y. Times previews new federal court hearing in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling that affirmed the invalidation of the previous map under the Voting Rights Act.
“In the new map, Republicans chose to increase the percentage of Black… Continue reading
America’s Redistricting Process Is Breaking Democracy
This is a few days old but worth highlighting. In the New Yorker by Sue Halpern (@suehalpernvt). From the piece:
“The redistricting process may seem arcane and academic, even negligible, but it is a foundation of representative… Continue reading
“Sen. Manchin’s Freedom to Vote Act would help stop gerrymandering, our research finds”
This very useful analysis explains how the FTVA’s rebuttable presumption of unlawful gerrymandering works and identifies which new congressional maps would trigger that presumption. Unsurprisingly, maps drawn by legislators are much more likely to trigger the presumption than maps drawn… Continue reading
Partisan Fairness Criteria in Action
One of the last decade’s most interesting redistricting developments was the adoption of explicit partisan fairness criteria by Michigan and Ohio (sites of two of the 2010s’ most egregious gerrymanders). In Michigan, the new independent commission is required to draw… Continue reading
The Rebuttable Presumption of Gerrymandering
The new Freedom to Vote Act has many interesting pieces, but I want to focus here on the rebuttable presumption of gerrymandering that’s at the core of the Act’s redistricting provisions. In a nutshell, this presumption kicks in if a… Continue reading
The draft Colorado map
Yesterday, Colorado became the first state to publish a draft congressional map. PlanScore’s analysis of the map is below. It would be slightly skewed in a Republican direction, with an expected efficiency gap of 2.5%, an expected partisan bias of… Continue reading