State court ruling is win for voter rights

It’s been a pretty good couple of days for underdogs.

No, we’re not talking only about the Eagles.

We’re talking about those who took one look at the Pennsylvania Congressional map, noticed how it was contorted and twisted into bizarre shapes in a blatant display of partisanship, and cried foul.

Monday the state Supreme Court agreed with them.

Not only that, but the justices ordered the maps – a result of the redistricting done back in 2011 based on the results of the 2010 census – be thrown out. They ordered the state Legislature to take another shot at it, redraw the maps, and submit the plan to Gov. Tom Wolf by Feb. 15 – in time for the new boundaries to be in place for the May Primary. If they fail to get the job done, the justices said they would take up the job themselves.

The League of Women Voters took one look at the state’s reconfigured Congressional districts after the 2010 census and smelled a rat.

The League went to court seeking to have the map tossed out, claiming it was blatantly political.

And they got a Commonwealth Court judge to agree with them. But while noting the last redistricting process was dripping with partisan flavor in an effort to favor Republicans, the judge ruled it was not unconstitutional.

Monday the state Supreme Court disagreed.

The court, dominated 5-2 by Democrats, agreed with the League, and the lower court judge - but tossed out the maps and ordered the state Legislature to draw up new maps.

It’s a huge victory for everyone who believes that every vote should count, and that partisan politics should not be a part of the process, in effect deciding races long before voters can even enter their polling places.

Republican members are now themselves joining their counterparts who brought the lawsuit in crying foul. Only they don’t have a problem with the bizarre contortions they concocted in the process. Instead they see another form of politics, the Democratic high court playing its own game of politics and show a lack of respect for the Constitution and legislative process.

We agree that there is no way to separate politics from this issue, so long as redistricting sits in the bailiwick of the Legislature. We concur with those who would like to process taken out of the clutches of politicians.

Pennsylvania has 18 congressional districts. Currently, 13 of them are filled by Republicans, despite a voter registration that continues to trend Democratic and a voting pattern that also has consistently drifted toward the Dem side of the ledger, Donald Trump’s win not withstanding.

Republicans would have us believe this is because voters prefer their candidates and policies.

We concur with the League of Women Voters, in seeing a masterful political con job that twisted the boundaries of districts to take advantage of GOP strongholds, and restrict Democratic pockets in areas that were already traditionally Democratic and left Republicans little hope of victory.

It’s part of the reason why one-time swing districts held by Pat Meehan in the 7th and Ryan Costello in the 6th have proven to be GOP strongholds.

Both already were expected to face stern tests in the 2018 mid-terms as a wave of antiTrump fervor that manifested itself with unprecedented Democratic victories in November continued.

All of that is politics, and will play out one way or another.

What was at stake before the state high court was something more important, something fundamental to our democracy, the simple notion that every vote counts.

Through the political cunning of gerrymandering, that was increasingly not the case.

The districts were drawn up to protect incumbents. Races often were decided before voters got anywhere close to the polls.

That is a dangerous, slippery path. It leads to public apathy, and disenchanted voters who believe their votes no longer count and thus fail to take part in the process at all.

Gerrymandering is undemocratic – and we’re not referring to the political party.

This week’s Supreme Court ruling goes a long way to eradicating that blotch on Pennsylvania politics.