Written by Kelsey Sanchez
“What we currently have is a fox in the hen house,” said Elisabeth MacNamara, lead negotiator for the League of Women Voters redistricting in Georgia.
Every ten years the United States C
Each map should have equal population distribution, geographic continuity, effective representation for racial groups, language minorities and communities of interest (meaning ethnic groups, socioeconomics groups, etc.), compactness and partisan fairness.
However, voters have little to no understanding of how districts maps are drawn. In the state of Georgia, state legislators draw maps for both congressional districts and legislative districts. People elect their state legislators. What MacNamara means by her fox-in-the-hen-house analogy is the people in charge of creating district maps hold jobs that are directly impacted by how those maps are drawn.
For example, in Georgia’s first congressional district, there are two counties, Echols and Effingham, which are only partially within the district. Both portions have strong Republican voting histories, arguably just enough population to balance more liberal counties like Chatham and Liberty. It might be less troublesome if Georgia had maps drawn in a balanced way, but Georgia state legislators are Republican by a large margin.
“It’s important to remember this is not a partisan issue. [Gerrymandering] is on both sides,” said MacNamara. She is right and this map on fivethirtyeight provides a national perspective. The problem is undeniable and creating authentic voter representation is going to be a huge, people-powered movement.
The League of Women Voters is a part of that movement and it is moving fast because the 2020 census is just around the corner. The League’s current focus is making the Democracy Act law. Three accomplishments of the Democracy Act would be: banning any use of political party affiliation of Georgia voters in past elections to draw maps, forcing the maps and map making technology to be a public process and legal accountability for map makers who break the law in court.
In MacNamara’s words, “There are no good guys in this story, except for the ones fighting for transparency.”
Get involved and visit the event page on League of Women Voters of Coastal Georgia to see upcoming talks and trainings.
Visit the national League of Women Voters to see what’s happening in your hometown.
