11/19/2023 0 Comments Colored edge control![]() “There is no plausible popular vote result that’s ever going to lead to anything other than a Republican majority in the Wisconsin state legislature.” The Wisconsin Legislature “is effectively really no longer a democracy,” said Nick Seabrook, a redistricting researcher and department chair at the University of North Florida. “Was partisanship considered as a consideration in the map? Yes,” Vos testified. Supreme Court allowed for partisanship to be a factor when drawing lines. Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, in testimony he gave in 2021 when introducing the latest maps, noted that the U.S. It shows that there’s an imbalance in the math of a 50-50 state.” “It’s not a Democratic or Republican issue. ![]() Mark Pocan, a former Wisconsin state Assembly member. “That’s what you call rigged,” said Democratic U.S. Republicans received less than 55% of the votes cast for major party Assembly candidates, yet they won 65% of the seats. In the 2022 election, Wisconsin’s Assembly districts had the nation’s second-largest Republican tilt behind only West Virginia, according to an Associated Press statistical analysis that was designed to detect potential gerrymandering. “Republican leadership in Wisconsin has worked hard over the past decade to insulate themselves from the will of the voters,” said Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer. ![]() Senate - votes that also are done on a statewide basis. They also have elected a Republican and a Democrat to the U.S. While Republicans have used partisan gerrymandering to maintain their large majorities in the Legislature, voters have elected Democrats to all but one of the statewide executive offices that are decided on a partisan basis, including governor and attorney general. The result is that Wisconsin continues to operate under legislative districts shaped by Republican lawmakers, who have built lopsided majorities that do not reflect the state’s overall political leanings. That’s because Wisconsin is among 26 states that do not allow citizens to bypass their legislature through ballot initiatives. In Wisconsin, it is impossible to change the redistricting process unless lawmakers voluntarily relinquish their power. Democratic legislative candidates received just under 51% of the total statewide votes, translating to a 56-54 House majority and a 20-18 Senate majority. The 2022 midterm election was the first to use Michigan’s new districts, resulting in a flip of legislative control. That commission, which is instructed to be guided by “partisan fairness,” drew the current legislative and congressional maps after the 2020 census. In 2018, voters approved a citizen-led effort to take redistricting away from state lawmakers and give the task to an independent commission. ![]() Unlike Wisconsin, Michigan allows its residents to propose their own laws or constitutional amendments and put those proposals on the ballot for a statewide vote. In 2020, for example, Democratic legislative candidates received a slight majority of votes, yet Republicans won a 58-52 majority in the Michigan House and a 22-16 majority in the Senate under the maps they had drawn. Republican lawmakers, who then controlled Michigan’s redistricting process, drew maps after the 2010 census that gave them an enduring advantage for the next decade. Neighboring Michigan stands as a stark example of what can happen under independent redistricting. Districts drawn by independent commissions generally result in election outcomes more closely aligned with the will of voters. States that have shifted responsibility for redistricting from partisan legislatures to independent commissions generally have seen a reduction in gerrymandering, in which lines are drawn in a way that expands or cements one party’s grip on power. Republicans, and even Democrats the last time they had majority control of the Legislature 14 years ago, have resisted moves to give up their power to draw electoral district boundaries.
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