As the fight over control of the U.S. Congress in next year’s midterm elections approaches, the unprecedented, mid-decade strategic maneuvering to redistrict voting maps has been a constant hum beneath the surface.
But the idea of wholesale redistricting without a new census that would provide population data for how those districts should be drawn has voting rights advocates crying foul.
“Mid-decade redistricting at the behest of a partisan president is unethical, dangerous and sets a terrible, irreversible precedent,” wrote Jonathan Webber, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Florida policy director, in an opinion piece published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The push to use a mid-cycle redrawing of state district maps to guarantee Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives is ongoing. President Donald Trump first pressured officials in Texas to change the state’s maps, giving the majority party a chance to gain up to five seats. Other conservative-led states have attempted to follow suit, with Florida seen as one state where several seats might be found.
In his op-ed, Webber pointed to the state’s 2010 Fair Districts ballot initiatives, which voters approved to amend the state’s constitution to prevent partisan gerrymandering efforts.
“Over and over, voters of every political persuasion have said they do not want one party drawing the maps,” Webber wrote. “They understand instinctively that it is a conflict of interest.”
He also made the case for the bigger picture — that changing maps to favor one party over the other affects more than just who gets elected to office. It can fundamentally change the lives of the people who are governed.
“District boundaries are more than lines on a map,” Webber wrote. “They shape how neighbors organize, how resources are divided and how local voices are heard in Washington.”
Aside from the confusion that changing voting districts without benefit of the next census count brings, Webber noted that the partisan changes could continue the erosion of trust people have in their democracy.
“Democracy is not a game,” Webber wrote. “Our maps should not be either.”
You can read Webber’s full opinion piece at sun-sentinel.com.
Image at top: Illustration by the SPLC