May 2021 Hot Topic — Redistricting 101
Speaker: Debby Gould, LWVTN President
Debby Gould, incoming LWVTN President, gave an informative introductory presentation on the redistricting process nationally, with specifics relevant to Tennessee. This is part of the LWVUS outreach program called People PoweredFair Maps.
Background: Redistricting happens every ten years. The purpose is threefold:
- To define boundaries for political districts, from school boards to the US Congress
- To calculate the number of people to be reapportioned per district
- To guide distribution of Federal dollars — upwards of $500 billion — to districts.
Every ten years, a constitutionally-mandated national census is conducted, census data are sent to the states, states review that data, and draw maps. Maps are submitted for approval, and new maps are implemented to govern voting for the next decade.
Ideally, redistricting should be non-partisan and focus on providing appropriate representation for the people of various states and districts. However, the process is rarely smooth or nonpartisan. One historical concern is gerrymandering, named for an 1812 district boundary resembling a salamander created by Governor Gerry of Massachusetts. Although this happened long ago, many states still continue to draw odd-shaped districts. Gerrymandered districts often favor one political party, intentionally minimize the influence of marginal/minority interests, and favor incumbents going forward for the coming decade.
Tools used to gerrymander are called packing and cracking. Packing concentrates political interests into single districts in order to create large political majorities. Cracking spreads marginal or minority political interests across districts to dilute their influence in representing the district as a whole. The Supreme Court’s historic modification of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 regarding pre-clearance, as well as numerous cases afterwards regarding gerrymandering, allowed redistricting for partisan ends but not explicit racial categorization of district populations. Now, with standards relaxed, every state is allowed to set its own redistricting process.
States have varying redistricting laws, including:
- Requiring public meetings for community input (currently mandated in 33 states)
- Requiring public hearings on redistricting (26 states)
- Drafting maps for analysis (33 states)
- Requiring the redistricting process to be nonpartisan (a handful of states).
Specifics in Tennessee
In Tennessee, the State Legislature draws districts. After receiving federal apportionment data from the census, they then draw geographic lines for 9 US Congress, 99 State House, and 33 State Senate seats. Federal laws require that districts be approximately equal in population and that racial voting strength not be intentionally diluted. Tennessee state law requires districts to be connected and compact, and the Governor can veto the final maps. Because populations change, maps change. For example, in Tennessee in the upcoming redistricting process, congressional districts will cover approximately 767,871 people, 62,000 more than currently represented, which will mean increases and/or changes relevant to state house and senate districts as well.
Generally, LWVTN and other affiliated groups support redistricting maps that avoid oddly-shaped districts, keep city/county boundaries within districts, keep communities of interest (groups that share economic and/or social interests) within districts, and create competitive, not packed districts.