This week’s Bad Bill of the Week focuses on legislation intended to create an “independent redistricting commission.” While a supposedly independent commission assigned to handle redistricting sounds appealing, political reality and experience tell us the commission would end up being anything but independent.
SB 155 (as do all “independent” redistricting bills) appears to pass off our elected officials redistricting responsibilities to appointees but, ultimately, the appointees are appointed by the politicians we elect to be in charge of the process. No amount of restrictions placed on who can and who cannot be appointed to the commission, and no matter how convoluted the appointment process, we know that in the end partisans will make the final decisions on the maps. We also know the system can be scammed. All we need to do is look to Arizona and California and their “independent” redistricting committees to see that these committees aren’t what their proponents claim they are, but ultimately partisan cover for politicians.
Read the whole summary here.
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