As the new redistricting cycle continues this week, several states have released their plans for newly gerrymandered districts. In almost all of these states, Republican-led legislatures are drawing maps for their own political self-interest, picking the voters they want in their district, while taking away equal and fair representation from the people.
Indiana released their new legislative and congressional maps on Tuesday, ensuring that Congresswoman Victoria Spartz has the voters she wants in her new district to protect her re-election campaign. Nebraska Republicans are drawing their new districts to ensure they have just the right amount of voters that they want from Omaha to be able to win re-election. And in Arizona, Governor Doug Ducey is working to undermine the independent redistricting commission to make sure that his political allies get to choose which voters go into certain districts. Ohio Republicans last night approved their state legislative maps, using suspect and illogical math to protect their political allies and bypass bipartisan anti-gerrymandering reforms passed by three quarters of Ohio voters.
“As Republican politicians are moving nationwide to unfairly gerrymander districts and choose which voters they want to represent, it is even more important that the U.S. Senate passes the Freedom to Vote Act,” said End Citizens United // Let America Vote President Tiffany Muller. “This critical piece of anti-corruption legislation would fix our redistricting laws to ban political gerrymandering that allows politicians to choose their voters. The Senate must quickly pass this bill to ensure voters choose their elected officials, not the other way around.”
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