Gerrymandering and Independent Redistricting Commissions
Last night, Peck Young, Director of ACC's Center for Public Policy and Political Studies, Harriett Harrow, member of Austin's Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, and I participated in a game night at Capital Factory in the downtown Omni Hotel. Peck spoke about the creation of the commission; Harriett provided a personal interest perspective on the commission, and I spoke about the commission's criteria for redistricting. My thanks to the League of Women Voters of the Austin Area and Glasshouse Policy for the event. My prepared remarks follow:
Gerrymandering
is political. Politics is the authoritative allocation of values for a society,
according to David Easton. The Gerrymandering Project at fivethirtyeight.com
demonstrates how district boundaries can be manipulated to accomplish a
particular objective: (1) favor Republicans, (2) favor Democrats, (3) match
partisanship and seats, (4) promote competition, (5) maximize majority-minority
districts, (6) compactness (algorithmic), and (7) compactness following county
borders. The results:
Although
it’s political, it doesn’t have to be unfair, ineffective, and opaque. That’s
where independent citizen redistricting commissions can be very helpful.
However, the fairness, effectiveness, and openness of the redistricting process
are dependent on a number of variables.
Most
importantly, after the selection of the commission members, are the criteria
established for redistricting in the Constitution, Charter, or an ordinance.
The criteria must be clear, and the priorities of the criteria must be
established. The Austin City Charter establishes seven criteria, listed in
order of importance: (1) equal population, (2) Voting Rights Act, (3)
contiguity, (4) geographic integrity of communities of interest, (5)
geographical compactness, (6) use electoral precincts, and (7) geographically
identifiable boundaries.
Equal
population means that the variation between the most populous district and the
least populous district must not exceed ten percent. But what measure of
population should be used? Should it be total population or voting age
population or citizen voting age population? What is permitted under “one
person, one vote” interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment? According to the
U.S. Supreme Court in Evenwel et al. v.
Abbott, Governor of Texas (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that using
the total population, which is most commonly used, is permitted.
The Voting
Rights Act (VRA) is even more complex. There is no doubt that using race as the
predominant factor is unconstitutional. However, race can be one consideration
among several. In addition, minority voting strength cannot be diluted in
redistricting. What constitutes a dilution of minority voting strength? The Gingles test, created by the case of Thornburg v. Gingles (1986) requires
three components: (1) The minority must be large enough and compact enough
geographically to constitute a single district; (2) the minority must be
“politically cohesive;” and (3) the majority must vote as a block to deny the
election of the minority’s preferred candidate. The provision of the VRA that
determined the states or districts that must have electoral changes precleared
was stricken in 2013. Consequently, only a court decision of intentional
discrimination under the Section 2 of the VRA can be used to place a state or
district under preclearance.
Contiguity
means that the district must not be split into several disconnected pieces.
Communities
of interest is difficult. The Austin Charter defines a community of interest,
which is helpful. It also specifies what cannot be considered a community of
interest for redistricting purposes.
Compactness
is also difficult, especially given the prior criterion.
Electoral
precincts must not be split unnecessarily. The Austin map has several split
precincts.
Geographically
identifiable boundaries include rivers, roads, railroad tracks, etc.
After noting
the complexities, I don’t want to discourage anyone from applying for the
Austin ICRC in 2020 when the selection process for the new ICRC begins. I enjoy
being a member of the commission, have made friends with many Commission
members, and take pride in the Commission’s service to the community.
Sources:
Cook
Political Report and FiveThirtyEight
California
Common Cause and the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
Princeton University
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