Last chance to improve redistricting

For the past decade, there has been a bipartisan effort to change where lines are drawn.

For much of the past decade there has been a bipartisan effort to change the way state legislative and congressional districts are drawn in Pennsylvania.

It was driven by frustration over increasingly ridiculous district maps that were drawn without even an attempt to hide the clear political intent behind them. Counties, municipalities and communities were divided as districts were contorted into shapes that made absolutely no geographic sense. The principal motivation was to ensure there was a plurality of members of one party or another to ensure a strong political advantage.

The process is controlled by lawmakers, effectively meaning that they get to choose their voters. The result is lots of races that are either uncontested or in which one candidate has to start at a deep disadvantage. This tends to produce more extreme candidates, as there’s little incentive tomove to themiddle when there isn’t serious competition from the other party. It’s one of several factors that have led to deep political divisions and difficulty reaching compromises.

But many lawmakers in Harrisburg do not want to give up their redistricting power, and efforts to move the process to an independent commission have failed to bear fruit despite strong support from the public.

The good news is that the state Supreme Court in 2018 ruled that the congressional district maps were so extreme that they were unconstitutional. The court drew new maps that, while not perfect, better represented the evenly divided political makeup of Pennsylvania. The politicians taking part in the next redistricting processes will have to keep that in mind.

But more needs to be done to ensure fairness. While it’s too late to change who decides how lines are drawn based on the 2020 census, there is still time to enact legislation that offers some improvements to the process.

The Legislative and Congressional Redistricting Act, or LACRA, is a measure with bipartisan support in the House and Senate. Sen. Thomas Killion, a Delaware County Republican, and Rep. Tim Hennessey, a Chester County Republican, are among the sponsors.

The bill leaves the legislative redistricting process in the hands of lawmakers but establishes new requirements for transparency and fairness. Lawmakers would have to hold public meetings, make underlying data available for analysis and set strict criteria for drawing the maps. This includes a requirement that county and city boundaries be taken into account. People in Berks County, routinely sliced and diced in redistricting for years now, should take note.

It would invite public involvement in the process by establishing a website containing proposed maps and analyses, public comments and other information.

There’s not much time to get this done. If this redistricting reform doesn’t pass both houses by Nov. 30, there won’t be a chance to change the process for another decade.

We would much rather have seen a more ambitious redistricting reform measure emerge from the Legislature. As long as lawmakers are involved directly in the process, it’s all too likely that they will try to work it to their advantage, even if it’s in more subtle ways than they did a decade or so ago.

But in the absence of a measure that completely alters the process, the measure being contemplated now is well worth pursuing. At least moving redistricting work beyond closed doors should discourage some of the worst excesses of the past.

We urge lawmakers to move forward with this legislation even as they deal with the budget and other difficulties with little time left in this session. It’s an opportunity to chip away at one of the problems that has damaged people’s faith in the electoral process.

And whether this legislation passes or not, efforts to substantially remake the redistricting process should continue in the coming decade. That includes the difficult, time-consuming process of enacting a constitutional amendment, which would be required to change the way state legislative lines are drawn.

Pennsylvania can do better. The fight to ensure fairness in our representation must go on.