Nonpartisan Redistricting (Fair Maps) Yes or No? (part 2)

Nonpartisan Redistricting (Fair Maps) Yes or No?

by Irene Bugge

On April 6, voters in Polk County will find the following question on their ballot: “Should the Wisconsin legislature create a nonpartisan procedure for the preparation of legislative and congressional district plans and maps?” What does this actually mean and why is it important? This article is the second installment of a series to educate voters about the non-binding referendum question on the ballot and aid them in making an informed decision.

What happened in 2011 when voting district maps were redrawn?

According to Dale Schultz and Tim Cullen, former state senators who served at the time, a computer programmer from Oklahoma drew the maps behind closed doors. The programmer used sophisticated analysis of past voting data to rig or gerrymander the maps in favor of the majority party.

“The maps were kept secret,” Schultz, the former Republican Majority Leader, said. “I was allowed to see how my district was drawn only if I swore that I would not share that information with anyone. I never got to see what the rest of the districts looked like before we voted to approve the maps.”

Advances in data analytics enabled the Republican map drawers to be precise in packing Democratic voters into fewer and fewer districts or spreading them out to dilute their power.