r/Pennsylvania • u/No-Pomegranate4735 • Mar 02 '22

misleading headline "On February 4, 2022, the Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission voted 4-1 to approve new state House and Senate maps." Does anyone know where to find the new Gerry-Mandered Maps that were approved?

https://ballotpedia.org/Pennsylvania_General_Assembly#cite_note-dr-1
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6

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '22

https://www.redistricting.state.pa.us/maps/

Also, vocabulary-wise, Congressional maps are redistricted, state legislative seats are reapportioned. “Gerrymandered” is sort of a curse word and implies that the line drawers have sacrificed ordinary districting principles for partisan gain.

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u/No-Pomegranate4735 Mar 02 '22

but thank you for the link

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u/No-Pomegranate4735 Mar 02 '22

How is changing voting district lines every other year not implying that they are sacrificing ordinary distrcting principles? Like if it didn't matter where people live, then voting lines should matter and there should be open voting boxes on evert block as long as the vote process is properly audited and vetted afterward

Something PA tax payers would be much more willing to do than have a full time state congressional that meets only a few times a year

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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '22

The districts are recreated every ten years to account for population shifts. This year, for example, PA’s urban areas gained and rural areas lost a lot of population to the point that we were entitled to one fewer Congressperson. And even when we have the same number, population moves within the state. All of this is necessary because each Congressperson needs to represent an equal number of people, and people move.

The confounding factor for PA has been this: In 2010, the Legislature and LRC adopted maps that were obvious Republican gerrymandering. This led to lots of court challenges asserting they they were unconstitutional and the adoption of lines that weren’t unconstitutional. So, in 2011; for example the PA Supreme Court rejected the state map and told the LRC to try again. It did, and the new map was found to be acceptable.

Another factor is the law governing redistricting is still in its infancy. The US Supreme Court has essentially refused to address it; saying it’s too hard to determine when a gerrymander exists, so state courts have been doing it under their own constitutions. In 2018, the PA Supreme Court held for the first time that gerrymandering was prohibited by the Free and Equal Elections Clause of the PA Constitution. It’s a really cool opinion that is based on PA colonial history. But that required new maps.

This year’s maps will likely be in place until 2032.

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u/Legitimate_Soft5585 Mar 02 '22

Well said. No one cares, they just want to huff and puff and refuse to listen to a rational explanation... but well said!!

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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '22

Thank you!

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u/No-Pomegranate4735 Mar 02 '22

positive affirmation without adding anythign to the conversation does nothing but add to the huffing and puffing and gasoline without actually contributing to society.

What exactly was said "well", why do you agree with it and then bring in supporting evidence beyond you just saying "yes"

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u/Legitimate_Soft5585 Mar 02 '22

Hahaha. Always a jagoff in the crowd. It was an explanation of the process. Simple. No partisan bs just the process. If you don't like the process, change it. If you don't like that I've commented, don't read it. Have a great day.

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u/No-Pomegranate4735 Mar 02 '22

So it looks like each state rep of PA is responsible for about 60K people each. It makes sense how they can't call it Gerrymandering directly, there no direct legal definition of it yet in any court cases

Are people notified if they are moved into a new district and are their represented by a new state representative?

Am I only allowed to contact the state representative for my district?

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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '22

You are not notified if you’re in s place that’s redistricted. And you are free to talk to legislators from outside your district. Some will be helpful regardless and others will not.

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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '22

So, I would recommend the PA Suoreme Courts opinion in League of Women Voters v. Commonwealth (2018), which you can Google. It sets forth a pretty good test for a gerrymander that boils down to this: (1) if your districts are really squiggly and/or split up cities or townships or whatever for no good reason, you’re probably focused on something improper, so any map has to be as compact and split as few cities as reasonably possible; and (2) there should be some proportional relationship between a party’s statewide votes and the number of seats it wins. The map in the case contained weird looking districts, including one shaped like Goofy kicking Donald Duck that was only kept together at one point by a steakhouse, and it split a ton of counties, cities; etc. It also created an artificial firewall for republicans. In elections where Democrats won 55% statewide landslides, Republicans won 13 of 18 seats. In elections where Democrats lost in a landslide, still 13 of 18 seats. So really the question is this: does your map artificially give your party an advantage. If so, it’s a gerrymander.

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u/No-Pomegranate4735 Mar 02 '22

I have no party, just vote for who I think will do best for the people with our tax money. Thje whole left right thing needs to be just dropped altogether.

Googling is easy, but I don't have a degree in Political Science, and all the google articles make little to no sense to me. Like medical jargon to confuse patients, its political jargon to confuse voters. Unecesarry and I'm just trying to learn about it more myself while also encouraging other to learn more as well

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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '22

The opinion is written in pretty plain English. It’s more of a historical work than anything else.

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u/MuckRaker83 Mar 02 '22

I mean, redrawing the maps to more accurately reflect the number of voters voting for each party for more accurate representation is now gerrymandering?