Currently, voting districts are drawn by a committee of five — two Democrats, two Republicans, and one person whom both parties agree on. The results tend to be a jigsaw puzzle designed to keep the current party in office — ie, the congress chooses its voters, rather than the voters choosing their congress.
Fair Districts PA is an offshoot of the League of Women Voters. They’ve got a proposal that’s more equitable for voters.
Per the Philadelphia Citizen:
“Fair Districts’ plan … would institute a much more impartial and restricted redistricting commission. Their plan would create a new eleven-member committee, consisting of four Democrats, four Republicans, and three unaffiliated voters. No one could be on the commission if they or someone in their family has been a politician or has worked for one within the last five years. The commission would have to redraw districts in compliance with the Voting Rights Act; would have to maintain compactness (i.e. as close to circular as possible); preserve communities of interest (e.g. no taking poor communities and dividing them up among wealthy suburbs); and preserve natural political boundaries as much as possible (e.g. county lines). But perhaps most importantly, they’d be forbidden from using voting data in their considerations, since knowing how every ward voted is the most necessary ingredient for nefarious gerrymandering. … If the plan sounds obsessively neutral, that’s because it is. Unlike Project RedMap or Advantage 2020, Fair Districts is strictly nonpartisan. They’re not trying to flip the state legislature or ensure a lasting Republican majority. They just want to make it more representative and more effective. Whether Republicans or Democrats end up benefiting is irrelevant, as long as the process is fixed.”
Fair Districts PA is currently doing presentations all over the state. There’s one next week in Fort Washington. They recently did one and expected 200 people; instead, they got 700. This is how we wake up.
More information about their plan, with a video, can be found here.
The Green Commons 