Texas Maps on Trial

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from Texas Republicans over whether a panel of federal judges acted properly when it replaced the state legislature's congressional map with its own.

The judges' map was the result of a lawsuit that claimed the legislature-drawn map did not give adequate opportunity for minority groups to elect representatives of their choosing, as required by the Voting Rights Act. Texas gained four congressional seats from the 2010 Census--65% of the state's new residents were Latino--yet only one of the four new districts was majority-minority.

Oral argument is set for January 9, and in addition to the implications for voters, a New York Times article highlighted the plight of Texas elections officials who are now stuck in a holding pattern. With less than 90 days before Super Tuesday (March 6), election preparations should be well underway. Instead they are stalled because there are no districts: ballots have not been programmed, proofed or printed, machines have not been tested, voter registration cards haven't been printed or mailed, and poll workers haven't been trained.

However the maps are ultimately drawn, the case has already impacted the election schedule, and has the potential to affect voter turnout and county budgets. Even candidates have been unable to file because their districts simply don't exist. However the Supreme Court rules, the outcome could forever change the way our districts are drawn.

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Redistricting Continues in 19 States

As of last week, nineteen states are still without final districts. The redistricting process went smoothly and quickly in some states, but in others, maps are already in courts and others will be soon.

In Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer led a(n initially) successful charge to oust the chairwoman of the state’s independent commission. However, the Arizona Supreme Court overturned her decision, leaving some to speculate that the governor could still have her removed at a future date. Nevertheless, once finalized, many expect Arizona's maps to be challenged in court.

Based on the 2010 Census figures, Texas gained four additional representatives in the House. However, last week a federal court rejected the legislature's newly drawn lines, claiming they did not appropriately reflect Latino populations. This is nothing new, as Texas' maps have been challenged in court every decade for the past half century.

With presidential primaries beginning in early January, time is running out for states to finalize districts ahead of 2012.

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California Moves Closer to Finalizing New Districts

The California Citizens Redistricting Commission recently approved the final drafts of the state's new district maps, setting the stage for its next challenge--potential lawsuits. The commission must formally certify the maps by August 15 and present them to the secretary of state, although Californians can challenge the districts in court or at the polls. Redistricting is always a heated affair, no matter who is in charge, and creating new maps for 53 congressional districts, 120 legislative districts, and four State Board of Equalization districts is bound to make some groups and individuals unhappy.

Whatever the outcome, the successful creation and implementation of the Commission should still be applauded. Rather than focusing on protecting party interests, map-makers worked to keep communities of interest together, while considering geographical compactness, and protecting minority representation. Of course, balancing these many considerations was no easy task, and compromises had to be made. In the process, the Commission fielded nearly 20,000 written comments in addition to the 2,700 comments made at 34 public hearings across the state.

With the redistricting process nearly complete, many are beginning to wonder about the future of the 14 commissioners. They serve 10-year terms and once the maps are finalized, it is unclear what they will work on next, or for the next nine years.

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In California, Redistricting Input Generates Results

Did you attend a local redistricting hearing to offer testimony about your community? If so, rest assured that it paid off. Last week California's Citizens Redistricting Commission released the first set of draft redistricting maps. Upon their release, Greenlining Institute Redistricting Fellow Michelle Romero noted "One thing that's clear is that when communities turned out to make their feelings known, it made a difference."

Unfortunately, so far communities of color have shown up in smaller numbers. Luckily, this is just the first set of maps, and the Commission will continue to hold community meetings across the state to gather input. If you considered attending one, but haven't yet, there's still time! Romero encouraged "Anyone who feels the draft maps don't treat their communities appropriately...to speak up now."

The Commission has already fielded comments from more than 1,500 people. "Our No. 1 priority at this point is to give every single person in California a political voice," said Chairman Gabino Aguirre, who receives hundreds of emails each day about the Commission's work. The Redistricting Commission has until August 15 to submit the final maps to the secretary of state for approval.

Luckily, it's not just Californians who get to participate. See what the redistricting process looks like in your state, and make sure to speak up because you can influence where the lines are drawn!


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Combating Prison-Based Gerrymandering

Although some states have already finished the redistricting process, many are still hard at work.

Earlier this year, the Prison Policy Initiative released a new set of factsheets on prison-based gerrymandering. The factsheets highlight how the practice is disenfranchising minority voters nationwide, particularly African-Americans, Latinos, and American Indians.

Prison-based gerrymandering starts with where the Census counts prison populations. While some states require prisoners to be counted at their last know address, others are counted at their prison address, bolstering population in a district where they are (usually) not eligible to vote. Thus, the majority of a district's "residents" can be locked away, giving extra weight to the votes of those living there by choice, while simultaneously reducing the population and influence of prisoners' home districts.

Luckily, some states are beginning to tackle this problem. After voting to end the practice, the New York state legislature has stepped up to enforce the decision. The term "prison-based gerrymandering" was added to the state's 2011 redistricting glossary, one of the state Senate's stated goals is to end prison-based gerrymandering, and special consideration was given to how prisoners would be counted at their "homes of record."

Prison-based gerrymandering is also being addressed on a smaller scale. Earlier this year LaSalle Parish in Louisiana redistricted their local government and School Board, but only after deducting the number of prisoners in the parish's two prisons. LaSalle is one of over 100 local governments across the country that proactively address the issue of prison-based gerrymandering.

Is prison-based gerrymandering a problem in your community?

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Sacramento Makes Redistricting a City Affair

In California, redistricting has become a public affair with the creation of the new Citizens Redistricting Commission. But Sacramento is making the local redistricting process more public and transparent. They've developed a free online tool that lets anyone participate by drawing their own district boundaries for consideration by the city's committee, and eventually city council.

Sacramento has a history of engaging the public in the redistricting process. In the last redistricting cycle the city sought public input by offering a free GIS-based desktop redistricting tool (before the rise of online tools). The city's IT manager noted that "By offering a central place to create and submit plans, we can expand participation and communicate the objectives and challenges of redistricting."

The program was configured with the latest data from the 2010 Census, and is available during the six weeks leading up to the May 16 public plan submission deadline. Learn more about Sacramento's redistricting process.

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Iowa Completes Redistricting Process

The wait is finally over in Iowa. On Tuesday Governor Terry Branstad signed the state's new redistricting plan, officially eliminating one of Iowa's five previous congressional seats.

The new map was drawn by an independent body and approved by both houses of the state legislature before being signed by the governor.

What that means for legislators in Iowa has yet to be determined. Reuters reported that so far at least two of the state's congressmen have said they will move "into another district rather than face a primary against an incumbent of their own party."

Redistricting went quickly in Iowa because the process is so straightforward. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for every state. Last week Virginia's Governor vetoed the map he was presented with.

Learn more about redistricting by watching our webinar on what nonprofits should know about redistricting and visiting our redistricting resources page.

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Mandering Madness

Unless you're one of a select few, your tournament bracket is probably busted. Although March is almost over, (Gerry)Mandering Madness has only just begun!

Last week the Census delivered the final state-level files that are used for redistricting. So what's next for your state?

In Iowa, where redistricting has traditionally been a low-key affair, the loss of a congressional seat has politicians and constituents fretting about the future of their districts. Nevertheless, Iowa's redistricting process is fairly straightforward and is determined by a computer and three staff. So for now, all anyone can do is wait.

If only it were that simple in other states. Instead many will watch politicians and political parties fight (and bargain) for territory. In others, they'll see commissions grapple with complex issues as they draw new lines.

One such state is California, where the brand new Citizens Redistricting Commission is hard at work. The Commission was spawned from a 2008 ballot initiative and its authority was expanded with the passage of another ballot question in 2010. Now, 14 people (and some recently hired staff) are responsible for redrawing the boundaries.

On the other hand, redistricting won't prove problematic for states like Delaware and North Dakota which have only one representative, and so the state itself is one district.

Learn more about redistricting by watching our webinar on what nonprofits should know about redistricting or visit our redistricting resources page.

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The Latest from the U.S. Census

Yesterday the Census Bureau delivered the last of the state-level files from the 2010 Census. That means every state is now armed and ready for redistricting, and many are already knee-deep in it. In addition to more redistricting data, we learned a few other things about the nation's population.

For example, the U.S. mean center of population on April 1, 2010 was Plato, Missouri (37.517534 N, 92.173096 W, to be exact). Wondering what the mean center of population is? The Census Bureau's Twitter account described it as the "Place where flat, weightless, rigid map of US would balance perfectly if all residents were of identical weight."

The new numbers also show that one in six Americans are Hispanic, and Hispanics accounted for more than half the nation's growth (56%) between 2000 and 2010. Like Hispanics, Asians also experienced double-digit increases, and now account for 5% of the nation's residents. African Americans account for 12% of the population, as their numbers remained stable. Meanwhile, non-Hispanic whites diminished as a proportion of the population and are now at 64%.

Many groups are already using the data to point to new trends, such as the rise in the percentage of the nation's black population living in the South. The New York Times reported that it hit its highest point in half a century, attributing the gains to younger and more educated black residents moving out of declining cities in the Northeast and Midwest in search of better opportunities.

Stay tuned, because there's plenty more to come! And if you want to learn more about how your nonprofit can access and use Census data, sign up for our webinar "Power in Numbers: Putting 2010 Census Data to Use."

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Wednesday's Webinar on Redistricting

Thank you to everyone who participated in Wednesday's webinar, Getting a Seat at the Table: What Nonprofits Should Know About Redistricting. A special thanks to our presenter Justin Levitt for lending us his expertise.

The PowerPoint is available for download along with the audio portion of the presentation in MP3 format. Alternatively, you can watch the presentation online.

If you have any questions please use the information below to contact our two presenters.

Justin Levitt
Associate Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
Phone: (213) 736-7417
Email: justin.levitt@lls.edu

Lindsey Hodel
Director of Training and Partnerships
Nonprofit VOTE
Phone: (303) 910-5700
Email: lhodel@nonprofitvote.org

Here are some of the redistricting resources we mentioned during the webinar:

• A Citizen’s Guide to Redistricting from the Brennan Center for Justice
• The Impact of Redistricting in Your Community from the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
• Influencing the Redistricting Process from the Alliance for Justice
• The Redistricting Game
• The Public Mapping Project
  

For more suggestions, visit our redistricting page and stop by your state page for local resources.

Hope you can join us for an upcoming Nonprofit VOTE webinar!

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Redistricting Webinar Wednesday!

Don't forget to join us Wednesday for our first webinar of 2011:

Getting a Seat at the Table: What Nonprofits Should Know About Redistricting
Wednesday, March 16th at 2:00pm Eastern
Redistricting is right around the corner and critical decisions will be made that can affect our communities, our missions, and our funding for the next decade. Tune in to learn the basics and find out how your nonprofit can get involved.

Featured Presenter: Justin Levitt is an Associate Professor of Law at Loyola Law School and author of "The Citizen's Guide to Redistricting."

Hope you can join us!

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Nonprofit VOTE Webinar Series Returns in March!

The dates are set for our first two webinars of 2011! Please join us for:

Getting a Seat at the Table: What Nonprofits Should Know About Redistricting
Wednesday, March 16th at 2:00pm Eastern
Redistricting is right around the corner and critical decisions will be made that can affect our communities, our missions, and our funding for the next decade. Tune in to learn the basics and find out how your nonprofit can get involved.

Featured Presenter: Justin Levitt is an Associate Professor of Law at Loyola Law School and author of "The Citizen's Guide to Redistricting."

RSVP Now!


Power in Numbers: Putting 2010 Census Data to Use
Thursday, April 7th at 2:00pm Eastern
If you work for a nonprofit, chances are you've come across or used Census data. Learn more about how you can access and use this powerful data. Whether you're an expert at using Census data, an intermediate, or brand new, this webinar will give you practical tips and takeaways for finding, using, and applying Census information to your organization's mission, programs, and fundraising.

Featured Presenters: Terri Ann Lowenthal is an independent legislative and policy consultant specializing in the Census and federal statistics. Terri Ann is a leading national expert on the Census and the Census Project 2010, as well as other nonprofit sector initiatives. Todd Clausen is the Data Center Coordinator at the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee and trains nonprofits in using Census and other data to build capacity and promote community-based decision-making.

RSVP Now!

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Students Draw the Lines in Virginia

The 2011 Virginia College and University Legislative Redistricting Competition was recently announced, and will allow students to take a stab at redistricting their state. After Census data is made available, student teams will draw Virginia’s congressional and state legislative districts using software developed by the Public Mapping Project. (See our earlier post for more on this tool.)

Their redistricting plans will be judged on whether or not the districts are: compact; contiguous; equal in population; in compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act; encompass communities of interest, and; respect existing political subdivisions. In addition to educating students and the public about the redistricting process, sponsors also point out that the maps will "demonstrate alternative ways to draw Virginia’s districts, which may be compared favorably or unfavorably to the maps produced by the state government."

And for the less studious, or those just looking to express themselves, the Sunlight Foundation has developed "Better Draw a District", which allows you to draw over districts and "encourages you to add graffiti to any and all congressional districts." (Note, this is a self-described "crude, far-from-serious, yet very fun" project.)

Both of these projects make it clear that this redistricting season will have something for everyone.

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Redistricting Reform

Last week we discussed the basics of redistricting and gerrymandering, and today we’re going to cover how voters are taking back the process from legislators.

Each state redistricts differently. In Iowa, two men and a computer are responsible for the process. In some states—like Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Montana, New Jersey, and Washington—special bi-partisan commissions draw the lines. But in the remaining states, politicians--who are concerned with their own careers--direct the process. Current estimates reveal that one of the two major parties will have unilateral control over the redrawing of 140 congressional districts. The remainder are in states where either both parties have a chance to influence redistricting or where decisions will be made by independent commissions. For a complete look at who draws the lines, visit the Rose Institute.

However, on November 2nd, voters in California and Florida passed legislation that effects how each state draws the lines. In California, the new Citizens Redistricting Commission had its authority expanded with the passage of Proposition 20. The Commission was originally charged with drawing the lines for state legislative districts and Board of Equalization districts (Proposition 11 in 2008), but is now also responsible for drawing congressional district lines. The 14-member commission will be made up of five Democrats, five Republicans, and four commissioners from neither major party. Learn more about the commissioner selection process.

In Florida, Constitutional Amendments 5 and 6 (approved by over 62% of voters) incorporated language into the constitution that limits the power of legislators to draw their districts to guarantee reelection. The amendments prohibit drawing district lines—both congressional and state legislative—to favor or disfavor any incumbent or political party; they require districts to be compact and to utilize existing political and geographical boundaries, while at the same time protecting minority voting rights.

Reforms in both states are designed to limit the scope of political gerrymandering, which allows legislators to pick their voters, rather than the other way around. In a further effort to increase redistricting transparency, researchers have released District Builder—free, open-source web-based software—"that will enable greater public participation and transparency during the upcoming electoral redistricting process."

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Counting prisoners in the wrong place?

African-American leaders weigh in on the impact of counting prisoners, ineligible to vote in 48 states, in prisons versus their home communities. Why count people in far away communities where they cannot vote nor derive any benefit from local services?

Gerrymandering: Pure and Corrupt

Why do we continue to allow legislators to redraw their own districts? That is the question a recent editorial in the New York Times asks. Every 10 years, following the decennial census, state legislators around the county sit down to redraw not only congressional districts, but also their own state legislative districts. In effect, legislators are given the opportunity to choose their voters, rather than the other way round. This practice stymies electoral competition, precludes genuine accountability on the part of legislators to their constituencies, damages the public's trust and ultimately leads to corrupt and unresponsive government.

According to the Times, “New York Public Interest Research Group reports that in 2008 more than half of the state’s 212 legislators were re-elected with more than 80 percent of their districts’ votes. In 57 districts, the incumbents ran unopposed. New faces appear rarely, usually when a lawmaker retires, dies or, increasingly, gets convicted of abusing the public trust.” (Be sure to check out the Times' interactive feature "Redistricting New York Style" to see examples of some New York's worst districts.)

The editorial echoes arguments made by Prisoners of the Census, a group devoted to
examining the unintended consequences of counting prisoners in the census in the states where they are incarcerated. Prisoners are used as “phantom voters” to inflate the populations of the districts where they are held, and because they can’t vote, skew the numbers in favor of one party over another.

With so many viable alternatives, now is the time to stand up to legislators to demand a stop to partisan redistricting before we are left with another ten years of gerrymandered districts. To learn more about redistricting, visit The Redistricting Game website.

More on Redistricting

With 2009 elections approaching, the 2010 Census on the horizon, and America's midterm elections only a year away, now is the time to take a few minutes to understand what it means to redraw our district lines. Here are a few useful and fun learning tools.

A Citizen's Guide to Redistricting from the Brennan Center's Democracy site - downloadable in pdf form.

The ReDistricting Game - A fun and interactive way to see how partisan elected officials have the ability essentially choose their voters.

Redistricting the Nation- Get a street-level map of your congressional district, state senate district, state representative district and local district, along with the corresponding current elected officials! Find your legislators; then, check out some of the crazy district shapes this country has.