| Summary of Current Action
The League of Women Voters of New York State supports legislation that would create an independent redistricting commission to draw state legislative and Congressional district boundaries for the 2012 elections and beyond. Creation of an independent redistricting commission removes the inherent conflict of interest of elected officials drawing their own districts and gives responsibility to an independent body charged with drawing district lines in a fair and sensible manner.
We believe that this legislation should:
- Require that commissioners be appointed from a pool of diverse and qualified candidates, and set guidelines to ensure that racial and language minorities have fair and effective representation.
- Require districts to be:
- drawn to protect racial and language minority voting rights
- roughly equal in population
- as compact and contiguous as possible, and
- drawn to preserve communities of interest, but not favor or disfavor any candidate or political party.
- Require ample public hearings and other opportunities for public comment, including full access to data, maps, criteria, software, and proposed plans.
- Establish a process for the approval of the independent redistricting commission’s plan with input from the legislature.
- The League will work in coalition with its good government partners to achieve these goals in the current round of redistricting.
NEW! Update on Redistricting Efforts (2/27/2012)
ReShapeNY Refutes Claims that Redistricting Reform is not Constitutional (4/6/2011)
Action Alert on Redistricting (4/5/2011)
Get your State Assembly Member to Support Redistricting Reform for 2012; If He or She Already Supports Reform, Send a Thank You. Click here to find your Assemblymember and see if he/she already supports redistricting. Send him/her an email urging support or thanking for support.
Constitutional Amendment Passed in NYS Senate (3/14/2011)
Despite united opposition from good government groups who are working to have a truly independent redistricting commission in place in time for drawing the lines in 2012, the NY state Senate passed S.3331 March 14th by a vote of 35-24. S.331 proposes a constitutional amendment creating a redistricting commission of non-legislators which could not be effective before 2022. The specific problems with this approach are detailed in the group memo in opposition (click here). We view this as an unfortunate development but not the end of the fight we are waging with our good government partners and ReShapeNY.
ReShape NY is Launched (3/14/2011)
ReShapeNY, a campaign to achieve redistricting reform organized by Citizens Union, with the League and NYPIRG on the Leadership Team, was launched today in a simultaneous announcement in Albany and New Your City by its distinguished co-chairs and diverse coalition of thirty member organizations. For more information, see the new website: www.reshapeny.org.
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