How gerrymandering is a lot like slicing a pizza
A growing majority of Pennsylvanians of all parties are pretty much fed up, so to speak, with this wacky way of doing things. Now that the Supreme Court has said it would leave the disagreement over gerrymandering to the states (let the kids sort it out), it’s up to groups of concerned citizens to work out a better way to draw the boundaries of voting districts.
Fair voting districts look like a large pizza with 13 pieces of pepperoni, cut into eight equal slices with approximately 1 ½ pieces of pepperoni each.
Gerrymandering looks like whoever cuts the pizza gets to choose first – likely a big slice right out of the middle, with 3 ½ pieces of pepperoni. Never mind the other 7 pieces.
(Thanks to Brian Shamblin and Rob Thone, Draw the Lines, for this splendid explanation.)
Recently the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that it does not have the authority to end gerrymandering. What? That’s like the parents deciding to let the kids fight it out over the pizza. How can that be? Democracy is supposed to mean that voters choose their politicians. But in many states, including Pennsylvania, the opposite is true: A loophole in the law lets legislators use gerrymandering to choose their voters.
Here’s how they do it: Pennsylvania has a Legislative Reapportionment Commission, comprised of legislators, that draws the voting district boundaries every 10 years, after the U.S. Census. The commission is made up of one Republican and one Democrat from the state House of Representatives and one from each party in the state Senate. The fifth member of the commission is chosen by the majority of the state Supreme Court.
The LRC basically goes into a closet, locks the door, and comes out with a map including voting districts that look like imaginary insects, earth-moving equipment, or shirts hanging on the clothesline. They don’t have to tell anybody how they decide what’s “fair,” so you just get stuck with whatever piece of pizza they hand you.
There is nothing fair about it. Party leaders on the LRC divide up voters so members of their own party have safe seats in the Legislature. Somebody always gets left with only a sliver of pepperoni.
A growing majority of Pennsylvanians of all parties are pretty much fed up, so to speak, with this wacky way of doing things. Now that the Supreme Court has said it would leave the disagreement over gerrymandering to the states (let the kids sort it out), it’s up to groups of concerned citizens to work out a better way to draw the boundaries of voting districts.
Fair Districts PA is one such group. It is a nonpartisan project of the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters. These are the main ideas in the Fair Districts PA legislation now being considered in the state House of Representatives:
• District maps drawn by an independent redistricting commission made up of citizens, not politicians.
• Commission represents all political parties.
• Commission works out in the open with agreed-upon rules about what is fair.
• Commission draws districts for U.S. Congress, the Pennsylvania House, and the Pennsylvania Senate.
• We get a Legislature that looks like and thinks more like Pennsylvania voters.
All of these reforms are in House Bills 22 and 23. You can learn more about Fair Districts PA’s reform legislation by visiting: www.fairdistrictspa.com.
The most important thing we can do as voters is to INSIST on reform. After the 2020 census and the 2021 redistricting, the maps will not be drawn again for 10 years. Insisting on fair districts now might just be the most significant citizenship action we take for a decade.
If you have not already contacted your member of the PA House, by letter, by phone, or in a personal visit, DO IT this summer. Reps are going to make some big decisions when they go back into session in September. If we work together, we can be sure all Pennsylvania voters get a fair slice.