Some Redistricting Experts Believe Amendments to Bill Seeking to Revamp the State's Political Map are Improvements

Tuesday, September 19th, 2023 -- 10:00 AM

(By Evan Casey, Wisconsin Public Radio) Some redistricting experts believe amendments to a bill seeking to revamp Wisconsin's process for drawing political district maps are an improvement from the original proposal, but they say more work needs to be done after the plan was fast-tracked this week. 

According to Evan Casey with Wisconsin Public Radio, late Thursday, the Republican-controlled state Assembly passed the bill, which was announced in a surprise press conference Tuesday by Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.

The bill comes amid two ongoing lawsuits over Wisconsin's existing GOP-drawn legislative maps. Democrats say it's a partisan attempt to deny the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and its new 4-3 liberal majority, a chance to decide on the maps.

Vos has previously opposed similar efforts to enact redistricting reform in the state. In a Tuesday statement, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called the bill a "bogus" attempt to interfere in elections.

Under the proposal, which never received a public hearing, staff with Wisconsin's nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau would be tasked with drawing proposed political district maps every 10 years, following the census.

Those plans would then need to be approved by state lawmakers and signed by the governor. An amendment added Thursday removes the ability for state lawmakers to amend the nonpartisan agency's maps if they don't pass a third round of voting. John Johnson, research fellow at the Marquette University Lubar Center for public policy research and civic education, called that move an "improvement."

"Removing the ability of the legislature to simply amend the nonpartisan plan however they want and instead requiring them to just vote that up or down is definitely an improvement," Johnson said. Another amendment says the nonpartisan maps can only be approved by a "bipartisan vote" from state lawmakers.

"Those are definitely improvements, from a nonpartisan redistricting perspective," Johnson said. Wisconsin's current maps are considered to be the most gerrymandered in the nation. The nonpartisan Gerrymandering Project at Princeton University gives Wisconsin's current maps an "F" for political fairness.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.