Fair Maps/ Fair Redistricting/ Fair Representation

As required by the Constitution of the United States, the U.S. conducts a census every ten years to accurately count the number of people residing in the United States. This count is used as the basis for determining the number of representatives each state is entitled to in the House of Representatives.

Up until the end of the Civil War, although slaves were accurately counted, states only got representation based on 3/5 of the number of slaves. Voting in the original 13 states was originally limited to white, male, landowning residents, but each state’s representation was based on everyone living within its borders.
Then, in 1964, the Supreme Court ruled that in all election jurisdictions, including in both houses of state legislatures, the principle of one person/one vote must prevail. The only exception to this principle being the United States Senate, which was established with unequal representation in the United States Constitution.

The block by block results of the 2020 census are due to be released this Fall, but the preliminary results show that New York State population hasn’t increased as much as some other states – so we will lose one representative in the House of Representatives, and somehow we have to come up with Congressional Districts of approximately equal populations. Ditto for New York State Assembly and Senate Districts, and County and City legislatures.

In 2014, New York State (with League of Women Voters of New York’s support) passed a state constitutional amendment creating an Independent Redistricting Commission to help mitigate partisan gerrymandering. Unfortunately, the Governor and the Legislature didn’t pass and release the funding for the commission in a timely way – but the Commission is now functioning and will be holding 12 hearings around the state to hear concerns from the public. Think of some of the things to consider in drawing lines: Does Saratoga County have more in common with the North Country or the Capital District? Would we be better represented if the entire County was one Senate District, instead of being parts of two Senate Districts?

Want to try your hand at drawing Fair Maps? Contact Elizabeth Rossi, our Redistricting Coordinator. Email president@lwvsaratoga.org and put Elizabeth Rossi in the subject line.

Author: Barb Thomas
June 30, 2021