In Nevada last Wednesday a proposed constitutional amendment was introduced in the legislature that would establish a seven-member independent redistricting commission to draw the state’s congressional and state legislative districts.
The amendment, if adopted would prohibit partisan line-drawing and require competitive districts. The senate and house minority and majority leaders would appoint four commission members and those four would appoint the remaining three members, who must be unaffiliated voters or from a third political party.
The joint resolution would still need to be approved in two consecutive sessions of the legislature and by a majority of voters. In 2011 a state court drew redistricting maps after the legislature’s maps were vetoed by the governor. In 2020, a similar ballot initiative creating a commission did not gather the required number of signatures to make it on the 2020 ballot, in part due to litigation over the ballot language and the logistical complications of Covid-19.
Read the article in the Nevada Appeal
