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Border patrol Technology is making it possible for the public to participate in the redistricting process. BY DAVID JACOBS factors, Bergeron says: • Proportionality: Whether it generally reflects the voting population’s partisan makeup. • Competitiveness: Whether the partisan distribution allows for competitive elections. • Minority rights: The extent to which a map complies with the federal Voting Rights Act, so that minorities receive the appropriate level of representation based on their share of the population. • Compactness: A measure of “how nice the shape looks,” so the district “doesn’t have all these little tentacles out there.” • Splitting: How much a map avoids splitting parish, municipal and “community of interest” boundaries. The current map of congressional districts scores 0 out of 100 for competitiveness, while the state Senate gets a 3, Bergeron says. “We understand that there are always going to be negotiations that the public doesn’t see,” he says of the redistricting process. “We’re calling for the Legislature to avoid that as much as possible.” While all five principles may sound nice individually, they can conflict with one another. For example, a compact district won’t necessarily be competitive. And while some factors, such as the number of people in a proposed district, are objective, others are subjective, such as what is or isn’t a community of interest. “It’s all tradeoffs, and we’re going to have to look at everything on a case-by-case basis,” says state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell. She says proposed maps will “have strengths and weaknesses probably, and it will be the decision of the legislative members as to which map they think is the best.” Hewitt chairs her chamber’s governmental affairs committee, which will lead the state’s redistricting process along with the corresponding House panel. HOME COOKING: PAR’s Robert Travis Scott says one of the key factors state and local officials will use in redrawing districts is protecting incumbents. 82
FREE SPEECH: While legislators at the state Capitol will have the final redistricting say, the public can now offer suggestions and hold the elected officials accountable.
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IN LOUISIANA, the politicians get to draw their own districts, which may leave the impression, justified or not, that naked politics dictate the results. But this time around, resources are available that make it easier for the general public to meaningfully participate and hold elected officials accountable. “We’re putting redistricting tools into the hands of ordinary citizens, so those citizens can participate in the process in ways that they’ve never been able to before,” says Evan Bergeron, general counsel for Fair Districts Louisiana, a nonpartisan group with the goal of “democratizing democracy,” he says. With U.S. census results finally in hand after months of delays, Louisiana lawmakers have launched the once-a-decade redistricting process. Legislators plan to hold a “roadshow” series of public meetings prior to a special redistricting session early next year. Fair Districts has partnered with Dave’s Redistricting App, one of many available online redistricting platforms, to help users create their own maps for everything from Congress to the Legislature right down to their local parish council or police jury. Each of those maps, and any proposed by lawmakers, will be scored on five
Rather than starting with a clean slate, lawmakers will start with the districts as they are and work from there, she says. Legislators will try to avoid putting two incumbents in the same district, Hewitt says. Some officeholders live near the border of their current district, so lawmakers will try to avoid drawing them out of their districts, she adds. The roadshow meetings will be important “listening sessions” to find out what local officials and other residents want, Hewitt says. Some might want their entire community to have a single state senator, while others would prefer having multiple allies. Members of the public can also submit maps that will be posted on the Legislature’s website if they meet the basic legal conditions, she says. And the maps that lawmakers officially propose will be
subject to public debate in committee like any other bill. “We have laid out a game plan that is very open and transparent,” she says, noting that state law does not require public hearings. “I don’t know how the public could be involved any more.” The Legislature will draw new districts for Congress and state offices. Congressional districts must have as close to equal population as possible, while at the state level, legislative districts and the Public Service Commission can deviate up to 5% from the median and survive constitutional scrutiny. The state Supreme Court is not subject to the “one man, one vote” principle and has been redistricted only once in the last 80 years. The court’s districts are wildly out of proportion in terms of population and long overdue to be redrawn, says Robert
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