The Senate’s Redistricting Committees continued hearings this week, seeking input from the public on how to best draw a new legislative map.
Despite decennial census data not expected to be released until mid-August, Senate Democrats seem to be forging ahead with the map-making process using the much less accurate American Community Survey (ACS) data, which is a sampling of the population. Use of this data has the potential to disenfranchise voters and communities of color that have changed over the past ten years. State Senator Fowler says this would be like basing election results on poll numbers rather than counting the votes.
As hearings continue next week, Senate Republicans continue to advocate for their legislation, the People’s Independent Maps Act (Senate Bill 1325), which would create an independent map-making process—free of politicians.
Identical legislation has been supported by a group of bi-partisan legislators in previous years; however, not a single democrat legislator has expressed support for Senate Bill 1325.
Click here to learn more about the proposal.