Whyy redistricting

This means that after the census is completed, new lines will be drawn for several types of voting districts :. Explore the district maps. Find your representatives. In the U. Senate, where each state gets two senators, no matter what. As populations change and move around, we need to update the size and shape of districts, so each lawmaker continues to represent a fair portion of the population.

In , the Supreme Court ruled that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution requires that voting districts be equal in population. Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution gives the states primary authority to regulate federal elections, including congressional redistricting.

However, it also says that Congress is the ultimate authority and may supersede state laws. Congressional redistricting starts with reapportionment. Because the U. House of Representatives always has a total of seats, the country must always be divided into congressional districts.

Our work with law and policy makers to ensure necessary statutes exist to protect our civil rights. Do you know your rights? Keep them close at hand with these easy-to-use resources.

In-depth resources and analysis on our most pressing civil liberties issues. Redistricting is the process of drawing the lines of districts from which public officials are elected. Voters should be picking their politicians. Not the other way around. It is also frequently a necessary process to reflect changes in population changes and racial diversity after each decennial Census.

When redistricting is used as a tool to manipulate electoral outcomes or discriminate against certain groups, it ceases to be lawful and equitable, and we call it gerrymandering. The Constitution and the federal courts require it. Historically many states did not redistrict to reflect shifts and growth in their populations. Redistricting is an opportunity to ensure that our maps reflect that growing diversity.

In most states, the state legislature is responsible for drawing district lines. Iowa is different from all others in that district plans are developed by nonpartisan legislative staff with limited criteria for developing plans. Every 10 years, using updated census information on where the state has grown or shrunk, Pennsylvania redraws its state and federal districts to better represent its population.

No one involved in the congressional or legislative process who spoke to Spotlight PA detailed the exact methodology behind drawing district lines. They described a formulaic approach that meets the constitutional requirements of contiguity and compactness but said each district has a unique profile that will produce deviations from ideal sizes and shapes.

The last congressional redistricting cycle saw virtually no collaboration between the Republican and Democratic caucus demographers as GOP lawmakers controlled both the legislative and executive branches. The map was passed within 10 days of its introduction along mostly partisan lines and with little collaboration from the public or Democrats.

In , the state Supreme Court threw out this map, finding it was drawn to unfairly benefit Republicans. The Republican demography teams again will take the lead on drawing the congressional map, while the House and Senate State Government committees will serve as the face of the effort — holding hearings for public feedback and accepting criticism.

Tom Wolf could veto the map, likely sending it to the majority Democratic state Supreme Court. This division of power will require the Republican leaders to collaborate with their Democratic counterparts if they hope to pass a map with a margin that supersedes a veto.

Members of the Draw the Lines initiative gathered outside the Capitol in late October to call on legislators to produce a fair congressional district map via a transparent process. This cycle, the chair is Mark Nordenberg, former chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh.

In an interview with Spotlight PA, Nordenberg said he will not draw any maps himself and instead focus on listening to the concerns of the public. The panel already has hosted 10 meetings dedicated to hearing comments from experts and interested parties as well as accepted written testimony and district maps created by the public. The caucus mapmakers who work on the congressional map also handle the legislative ones.

In the past, members have met to define which areas of the House legislative map will be drawn by Democrats and which will be drawn by Republicans, according to one member of the House Democratic demography team who asked not to be named to speak openly about the process.

Cervas said he believes the commission has a good process to field public critique but recognizes the final map matters most. The calls for public collaboration and transparency stem, in part, from the notion that the redistricting process has been rooted in protecting incumbents, thereby basing district lines on keeping officials in office despite significant demographic changes.