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Technology is making it possible for the public to participate in the redistricting process. BY DAVID JACOBS

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 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. 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

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.

Travis Scott with the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana.

Local bodies also will redraw their districts, and many likely will hire consultants to help them do so. The East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council, for example, has a public hearing on the subject scheduled for Oct. 13.

“I think incumbency is going to be a major determinant,” Scott says. “It always is and will be.”

Using incumbency as a factor isn’t necessarily a bad thing, he adds. Voters might value the incumbent’s experience and relationship with their community.

In some states, an independent commission is in charge of redistricting. But in Louisiana, legislators have balked at even creating an official advisory commission, with some expressing anger that anyone would have the temerity to suggest such a thing.

“They’re not giving up one inch of authority,” Scott says. “It’s their show.”

The last time Louisiana redrew its districts, former Gov. Bobby Jindal initially said he wouldn’t be very involved, before injecting himself into the process. Likewise, Gov. John Bel Edwards has said he doesn’t expect to be very hands-on, but the Democrat’s veto pen will loom large in the Republicandominated Legislature’s discussions.

Scott says Edwards can “define the playing field,” much like he did with this year’s tax overhaul when he insisted any major changes needed to be revenue-neutral.

“I think he probably owes that to the Legislature,” Scott says.

Census results showed a shift in population away from the northern part of the state and rural areas toward suburban communities in the south and southeast. That means north Louisiana’s sprawling 4th and 5th congressional districts, which Republicans Mike Johnson and Julia Letlow represent, respectively, would have to extend even farther south. Lawmakers also could create a single north Louisiana district, which many officials in the region adamantly oppose. “Garret Graves has got to shed some people, but where does he shed them?” asks Council for a Better Louisiana’s Barry Erwin about the 6th District, noting that pulling back from the bayou region could be an option. Black voters now comprise more than one-third of the state’s population, so on that basis alone, creating a second majority-minority district among Louisiana’s six seats in Congress makes sense. However, there’s no obvious place to put it, so lawmakers instead might redistribute some of those Black voters to make currently deep-red districts a little more purple. Creating a second Black-majority congressional district has been prob-

“These are lematic in the past. The “mark of Zorro” districts that district Cleo Fields represented during determine who the 1990s—a 600mile “Z” shape you can vote that managed to include parts of for. What’s more Baton Rouge and Shreveport—was sacrosanct thrown out by than that?” the U.S. Supreme Court as an unconstitutional racial BARRY ERWIN, president and CEO, gerrymander.

Council for a Better Louisiana Erwin says it would be counterproductive for Edwards to be too involved, noting that Democrats in the Legislature, particularly members of the Black Caucus, will represent his interests. Republicans’ failure to override any of Edwards’ vetoes gives the governor extra leverage, Erwin says. The public has a responsibility to get involved, he says. While politics ultimately may rule, Erwin says politicians need to understand that these are the people’s districts, not theirs. “These are districts that determine who you can vote for,” he says. “What’s more sacrosanct than that?”

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