States rush to pass new political maps in gerrymandering blitz

Politicians used to save battles over political boundaries for a once-a-decade update from the U.S. Census Bureau. However, that's not the case this year.

Trump kicked off a recent wave of state-level redistricting, which hasn't been seen since the post-Civil War era. 

The Republican-controlled Texas legislature passed the party's new congressional maps in August and sparked a nationwide scramble over redistricting. In states across the country, Democratic and Republican governors are working to get their party more votes at the federal level.

Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute's Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, said after the Civil War, politicians would often redistrict when they thought it could give them an advantage. But over time, that practice ended and gave way to the once-a-decade update. 

"The norms were there partly because it was thought that politics was not as bare-knuckle, and partly because it was thought that people would be embarrassed having the public see them do this," Olson told The Center Square. "Because, as a number of people have observed lately, if you're in the middle of the decade, you don't have new census numbers, and you haven't been given some sort of court order that you have to change. That sort of rules out pretty much all of the likely motives, except for the sheer naked politics of doing so." 

State political leaders no longer seem embarrassed or concerned about how voters might react, Olson said.

"Trump, like a bulldozer, just can apparently override the local political judgment in different states that would never have done this," he said. 

While some states, like Ohio, had to redraw political boundaries due to a 2018 constitutional amendment, most states, including Texas, California, Florida, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, are doing so voluntarily.

New polling commissioned by Common Cause and done by Noble Predictive Insights found voters don't like it. The poll found 51% of Republicans, 70% of Democrats, and 60% of Independents oppose allowing political parties to engage in mid-decade redistricting. Those numbers moved even higher when the redistricting is done by one party. 

"This data makes it clear: Republicans and Independents are just as tired of partisan gerrymandering as Democrats," said Virginia Kase Solomón, president and CEO of Common Cause. "The White House and Congress need to follow the data and listen to their own voters: No more mid-decade redistricting."

The poll found more than three-in-four voters support a boundary-drawing process that puts community interests ahead of political advantage (78%), and having independent commissions draw electoral districts (77%).

Olson said some of the new maps could face legal challenges. However, he said the states that are redrawing their maps likely have lawyers well-versed in election law, including the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting. 

With all the focus on power in Washington, some voters could be left frustrated by all the mid-decade redistricting. 

"Voters aren't being listened to at all," Olson said. "They are just completely being moved around. I won't even call them pawns on a chess board, because you don't want to lose a pawn."

Voters, he said, should be frustrated. 

"Voters should be dissatisfied when this sort of thing happens because it's a very clear message that voters' interests have been demoted to the bottom," he said. 

However, politicians won't get exactly what they want, Olson said. 

"They can't squeeze the orange too hard without restoring some competitiveness in some seats," he said.

Furthermore, states can't gerrymander the governor's office, which is statewide, Olson noted.