The citizens step in

Those who believe — as we do — that partisan gerrymandering has become so extreme that it violates constitutional principles and threatens our democracy were disappointed when the Supreme Court dodged the issue last term. Its refusal in June, on technical grounds, to consider two egregious cases of partisan gerrymandering seemed to dash a good chance for reform.

So it is heartening that citizens fed up with the toxic effects of gerrymandering have taken matters into their own hands. The Brennan Center for Justice reports that a record number of redistricting reform measures may be on ballots in states across the country this year. A particularly inspiring example is in Michigan, where a grass-roots movement of thousands of volunteers overcame great opposition to get a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. It would put an independent commission, not the Legislature and governor, in charge of drawing the state’s congressional and legislative districts. Michigan’s state Supreme Court, in a 4-to-3 decision Tuesday, rejected a lawsuit brought by a business-backed group and supported by the state’s Republican attorney general that sought to keep the measure off the ballot.

The initiative is the work of a nonprofit group, Voters Not Politicians, born two years ago out of a Facebook posting from a 27-year-old with no experience in the political arena but a desire to do something positive after the 2016 election of Donald Trump.

Democrats engage in partisan gerrymandering, too, when they get the chance. It’s voters who get hurt; they are denied true representation, limited in a choice of candidates and confronted with government gridlock caused by political polarization. So Voters Not Politicians is right in saying, “It’s time we draw the line.”