Rally for an Independent Redistricting Commission at Houdini Plaza on June 4
The Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, the League of Women Voters of Appleton-Fox Cities, and Fox Valley Indivisible will host a rally on Thursday, June 4th, at 5:30 pm at Houdini Plaza to call for permanently ending gerrymandering in Wisconsin.
Progress toward establishing an Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) has been slow but steady.
The 2011 voting district maps were often described as the ‘most gerrymandered’ in the nation. Since then, nearly every county has either passed a resolution or an advisory referendum to end gerrymandering. From 2009 to 2022, twenty-one bills or resolutions were introduced to reform redistricting in Wisconsin. None of these proposals received an up-or-down vote on the floor of the state legislature.
Nationally, Republicans in several states recently opted to redraw maps in the middle of the decade for the sole purpose of winning more seats in the House of Representatives this fall. Redistricting is meant to take place only at the end of the decade following the census. In response, Democrats redrew maps in several states just to try to break even with those Republican efforts.
Ideally, the type of Independent Redistricting Commission being promoted in the state would make such future actions much more difficult, if not impossible.
Following the Wisconsin Supreme Court's 2023 decision that ruled the 2021 maps unconstitutional, Governor Evers signed new maps in 2024. But, without an IRC in place soon, Wisconsin will face the same fight against gerrymandering after the 2030 Census.
For the last year, the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition has been holding community presentations across the state, sharing the importance of establishing an IRC. An IRC puts citizens, rather than politicians, in charge of drawing maps every decade.
The Fox Valley legislative candidates have been invited to attend and sign a pledge to support and work to pass an Independent Redistricting Commission in the next legislative session. There is a draft proposal that, when finalized, will seek legislator sponsorship.
Once passed into law, the next step would be to approve an amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution to make nonpartisan redistricting permanent.
Penny Bernard Schaber, Fair Map Coordinator for the 8th Congressional District, said, “It is time to let current and future legislators know that their constituents want their voices and their votes to count equally. Fair Maps will make that happen and will let voters choose their legislators once and for all.”
The rally is part of a coordinated statewide day of action with other rallies in Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, Menomonie, Janesville, Kenosha/Racine, Green County (Monroe), and Wausau.
The mission of the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition is to ensure representative government for all by advocating for and enacting (in law and practice) an independent and nonpartisan redistricting process, building a fair and accountable judiciary, and securing the rights of the populace to fair and equal access to voting by educating and engaging the people of Wisconsin.
