Fair Maps Next Steps

By: Irene Bugge

The fair maps referendum on the April 6 ballot in Polk County passed. What happens next?

I posed this question to Kathleen Hobert. A fair maps advocate and farmer in Amery, she helped lead the nonpartisan redistricting referendum efforts in Polk County. 

Hobert smiled and answered, “First we celebrate the referendum passing. Our team worked really hard.”

Volunteers put up 150 “End Gerrymandering” yard signs, mailed 2,000 vote-yes-for-the-nonpartisan-redistricting-referendum postcards and left phone messages or spoke directly with 700 voters. The local League of Women Voters chapter held five fair maps sign rallies. News stories and ads stimulated a robust discussion of the issue on the editorial pages of local papers.

“We saw lots of community engagement,” says Hobert.

And it paid off.

A solid majority — 61% of voters in Polk County — voted yes to the question: “Should the Wisconsin legislature create a nonpartisan procedure for the preparation of legislative and congressional plans and maps?”

How will voting district maps be redrawn in 2021?

Ten years ago, the voting district maps were drawn behind closed doors by a political scientist from Oklahoma. The maps were kept secret. The people of Wisconsin were not involved in the process. Even elected officials from the majority party were only allowed to see how their own district was drawn before voting to approve the maps.

Advances in data analytics enabled the maps to be so heavily gerrymandered that they diluted the votes and voices of over half of Wisconsin’s citizens. A Federal court deemed them unconstitutional, and the expensive court battles over the rigged maps wasted $4 million of taxpayer money.

Last fall, Governor Evers established the People’s Maps Commission (PMC). Modeled on nonpartisan commissions that have worked well in other states, the PMC was asked to hear directly from voters from every congressional district in the state and then to work together to draw fair, impartial voting district maps for the Legislature to consider in 2021.

The People’s Maps Commission recently completed eight listening sessions across the state, learning directly from experts about methods for drawing fair, nonpartisan maps and also taking public testimony. It also has released the criteria it will use to draw the maps, with an emphasis on “contiguity and compactness,” “preserving political boundaries,” respecting “communities of interest,” and reflecting “partisan fairness.” When census numbers are released, the Commission will complete their work.

The Legislature has already made it clear that they will have their own set of maps drawn. Unlike the PMC, the Legislature has not committed to using a nonpartisan process. They have not disclosed the criteria that they will use to redraw district boundaries, nor asked for public input.

It is expected that the Legislature will approve maps that are similar to the heavily gerrymandered maps drawn ten years ago. These will be sent to the Governor. The Governor will veto the maps if they are partisan. If vetoed, the maps will again end up in court.

How Polk County’s referendum fits in?

With the passage of the referendum in Polk County, 56 out of 72 counties in Wisconsin now support fair maps. Fifty-five counties have passed resolutions and 32 have passed referendums. Polk passed both.

“Each resolution passed by a county board or referendum passed by voters puts more pressure on our elected officials in Madison to draw fair maps,” Hobert said. “Momentum is building.”

Her advice?

“Since we’ve recently passed the fair maps referendum in Polk County, now is a great time to contact our legislators and let them know that we want fair maps and so do our neighbors,” Hobert said.

Interested in learning more about fair maps? Register for “Fair Maps 101” at: www.linktr.ee/Nonpartisan_Redistricting

Sourced by materials from: League of Women Voters, Western Wisconsin for Nonpartisan

Voting Districts, Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition and Wisconsin Farmers Union