Experts have largely regarded Wisconsin as one of the most gerrymandered states.
New legislative district maps ordered by the State Supreme Court could change that.
Right before Christmas,the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the state legislative district maps are unconstitutional because the districts aren’t drawn contiguous.
They looked at all 99 assembly districts in the state and believe at least 50 of them are detached as are at least 20 of the 33 senate districts.
“They did such a good job. Being able to break it down, and just be like, ‘Look, contiguous means touching and we've got a bunch of different boundaries across this entire state that are so broken up that it violates the Constitution,’” said Nick Ramos, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. It’s a nonpartisan group that has been calling for fair maps for years.
In ruling the maps were unconstitutional, the court gave the Republican-controlled state legislature until this Friday to draw new maps that Democratic Governor Tony Evers would sign, or the court will proceed with adopting its own map through the work of consultants.
Republicans have asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reconsidered the decision and asked for a deadline extension.
“I don't think any party should be able to create maps where it safeguards and enshrines their power for decades. This decision gives the people of Wisconsin an opportunity to reset the maps, reset balance in the state, and be able to give everyone a fair shake and have everybody's voice be equally heard instead of them being silenced because of the way that our legislature has drawn maps in the state,” said Ramos.
Some Republican lawmakers have said they’ll take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ramos says the U.S. Supreme Court would be unlikely to take it up since the State Justices made the decision within state law and the U.S. Supreme Court deals in federal law.
“If you want to kick it to the Federal Supreme Court, I think at that point, you're wasting Wisconsin taxpayer money. This decision lies in the state,” said Ramos. “I think there's no reason for the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene on a case that truly came down to an issue of whether or not our maps are contiguous here and our territories are contiguous, and they're not.”
While there’s still a lot of factors that could change things, it is possible the new maps will be in place before the fall election.
Ramos says it’s unfortunate that it’s happening during a major presidential election year, but states have done it before.
It will just take a lot of educational work to make sure voters are informed.
“I think we'll probably get an opportunity to see some of the fairest maps as far as the constitution is concerned that we've seen for quite some time, so buckle up, Wisconsin. There's a lot coming down the pipeline here. It's important to stay engaged because we've got a lot of stuff beyond the Presidential [election] that is happening this year,” said Ramos.
Ramos says there are five major criteria the court will be looking at when considering the new maps.
1. The maps must comply with population equality requirements.
2. The districts need to be contiguous.
3. That the maps follow federal law, like the Voting Rights Act.
4. The districts follow traditional criteria like preserving communities of interest.
5. Consider partisan impact.
Ramos says the last one is of some controversy.
“The Law Forward and the Clarke petitioners originally petitioned the court about partisan gerrymandering, and the court chose not to take up one of those claims,” said Ramos. “But in this decision, they said that they would be remiss if they did not at least consider what impact might end up happening if we don't look at these communities and whether or not partisan impact will impact these remedial maps.”
The Wisconsin Elections Commission says the new maps need to be in place by March 15 for the August Primary.
