Analysis: Do Redistricting Maps with Deviations Under 10% Violate the Equal Population Rule? Sometimes.

Analysis: Do Redistricting Maps with Deviations Under 10% Violate the Equal Population Rule? Sometimes.

Most legal challenges to redistricting maps based on population deviation center around deviations that are too large. However, there are a handful of cases in which a court has found a map with minimal deviations (under 10%) to be unconstitutional. What is minimal? The equal population or “one-person, one-vote standard requires general population equality between districts, but there is no precise number or percentage that defines constitutionality. Instead, the Supreme Court interprets this constitutional requirement for congressional districts to mean “strict equality,” and for legislative and other local maps, districts need only to be “substantially equal.” In practice, a clear…
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Evenwel May Just Be an Awful Can of Worms

Evenwel May Just Be an Awful Can of Worms

Victoria Bassetti, writing for Brennan Center in this article titled "Supreme Court Redistricting Case Is New Front in Voting Wars," speaks eloquently about the dangerous thinking behind the Evenwel case now before the U.S. Supreme Court. If the powers that be actually have a choice on what population base to use when redistricting, won't politics come in to play? Read the article here.
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Supreme Ct Preview: Persily Amicus Brief on the One Person One Vote Requirement

Supreme Ct Preview: Persily Amicus Brief on the One Person One Vote Requirement

In this latest Supreme Court case Evenwel v. Abbott, exploring the claim that political redistricting should focus on balancing the number of eligible voters in the population across districts as opposed to total population, several amicus briefs have been submitted by interested parties. None other than Nathaniel Persily; Stanford Law professor and a sought after expert on redistricting has submitted this brief along with several other equally accomplished colleagues in the  voting/redistricting field: Bernard Grofman, Stephen Ansolabehere, Charles Stewart III, and Bruce Cain. Oral argument is scheduled for December 8th. (more…)
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