OPINION: Independent redistricting commissions — a crucial step to strengthen our democracy

Pictured above: Zachary Blair-Andrews is a political science student at USF. 

Courtesy of Zachary Blair-Andrews


By Zachary Blair-Andrews

Civic engagement is the lifeblood of our representative democracy.  

We need individuals that put in the work to register people to vote, to protest inaction by government officials, to campaign for good candidates and to be involved in every step of the public policy process.  

Civic engagement is how we instill democratic values in each new generation and, in turn, continue our tradition of government of the people, by the people and for the people.  

However, this important work is being undermined by a structural issue in our electoral system – partisan gerrymandering.  

The term refers to the drawing of district lines that purposefully maximizes seats for one party or voting bloc and has been an issue since nearly our nation’s founding.  

The term “gerrymandering” was named after Elbridge Gerry, a former Governor of Massachusetts, who redrew the map of the Massachusetts State Senate in 1810 to weaken the opposing Federalist party.  

Partisan gerrymandering stifles competition within our congressional or state legislative districts by favoring one party over another.  

Given the devolved system of electoral politics in our country, states are at different points in either dealing with gerrymandering or choosing to perpetuate it. 

Currently, only nine states rely on independent redistricting commissions to redraw districts every decade. Members of these commissions are not allowed to be legislators or public officials.   

Using measures like the efficiency gap, an academic method of quantifying the caliber of gerrymandering, determines whether either party enjoyed a systemic advantage in turning votes into seats by counting the number of votes each party wastes (votes for losing candidates or excess votes for winning candidates) in an election.  

California and Arizona are two of the nine states that use independent commissions. After implementing an independent redistricting commission in California, an Associated Press analysis found almost no efficiency gap. Similarly, an independent redistricting commission in Arizona made districts far more competitive and incentivized elected representatives to work across the aisle.  

Instituting this single structural reform nationwide would have a domino effect of positive results across our country.  

Drawing more competitive districts will make working across the aisle in Congress an increased occurrence because legislators will have to respond to members of both parties rather than solely cater to their base and party activists — loosening the ideological tension cultivated between those on opposite ends of the political spectrum.  

Furthermore, the implementation of independent redistricting commissions will make elected representatives more responsive to their constituents. The Florida Legislature, for example, feels free to ignore policy proposals that most Floridians agree with because they know that their districts are drawn to prevent them from losing power.  

If elected officials can’t pick their own voters, then they will have to be more responsive to the desires of the people.  

Redistricting happens every ten years after new census data is collected. 

Florida maps are currently being drawn for the decade to come. The problem lies in the Republican members of the Florida House who recently released aggressively gerrymandered Congressional maps. 

It doesn’t have to be this way.  

H.R. 1, the “For The People Act,” a bill that would prevent politicians from picking their voters by requiring states to establish independent redistricting commissions for Congressional redistricting, has passed the U.S. House of Representatives.  

It is now being held up in the U.S. Senate by a Republican filibuster despite polling data claiming that the bill is overwhelmingly popular nationwide.  

If you want to prevent politicians from picking their own voters, call Senate Democrats Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin and urge them to reform the filibuster so that the “For The People Act,” or a different bill that requires states to establish independent redistricting commissions, can be passed.  

Let’s act now to make our republic more representative of the people that it is designed to serve. 

Zachary Blair-Andrews is a political science student at the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus.   

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