Amid complaints of a rigged system, one woman's effort to end gerrymandering
| Lansing, Mich.
The post that changed Katie Fahey鈥檚 life came to her a couple of days after the 2016 presidential election.听
The campaign鈥檚 corrosive atmosphere and its divisive result had left Ms. Fahey troubled. She wanted to find a positive focus 鈥� and bring a sense of empowerment back to her community.听听
So before leaving for the office that morning, she shot off a note on Facebook. 鈥� 鈥楬ey, I want to take on gerrymandering in Michigan,鈥� 鈥� she recalls writing. 鈥� 鈥業f you want to help, let me know. Smiley face.鈥� 鈥�
Why We Wrote This
An era of surging activism is generating new attempts to make the process of drawing congressional maps more impartial 鈥� and to give more weight to individual votes. But can an inherently political process ever be truly nonpartisan? Third in the Democracy Under Strain series.
By the end of that day, dozens of people were volunteering to help. Within three months, she had organized a team, formed a ballot question committee, and started collecting signatures. Today, Fahey works full time as executive director of Voters Not Politicians, a nonprofit dedicated to creating an independent redistricting commission for the state of Michigan.
鈥淚 accidentally started a movement with a Facebook post,鈥� she says with a grin.
It鈥檚 not surprising Fahey鈥檚 message resonated. The shock of the 2016 election, combined with the public鈥檚 with government, has revived political activism across the country. Over the past two years, massive multi-city protests have taken place over a range of hot-button issues. Record numbers of female, minority, and first-time candidates 鈥� convinced they need to step up against injustice and apathy 鈥� are seeking office in November鈥檚 midterms.
In this activist atmosphere, redistricting reform has found new traction. For folks like Fahey, partisan gerrymandering 鈥� the practice of drawing legislative and congressional district maps to increase or maintain the power of a political party 鈥� has become a symbol of a rigged system that rewards the powerful and disregards the will of the people.
And now they鈥檙e working to fight it.
As of September, there were involving partisan gerrymandering working their way through courts nationwide 鈥� including one in Fahey鈥檚 home state of Michigan.听Redistricting reform measures are also on the November ballot in six states, and campaigns in two more are calling on their legislatures to amend their state constitutions. In May, Ohio voters , which requires bipartisan collaboration in redrawing congressional district maps. The new process 鈥� a compromise amendment among Democrats, Republicans, and the state鈥檚 Fair Districts = Fair Elections Coalition 鈥� is set to start in 2021.
鈥淚t鈥檚 part of a larger movement nationally for people who are dissatisfied with elections in general and want the election process to be different,鈥� says Josh Altic, director of the Ballot Measures Project at Ballotpedia. 鈥淕errymandering has been identified as a key element of that dissatisfaction.鈥�
Maximizing partisan advantage
Redistricting has always been a main feature of the US democratic process. Under the Constitution, the Census Bureau must update the population count every 10 years. States 鈥� often through their legislatures 鈥� are given the chance to redraw legislative and congressional district maps to reflect the new figures. Often, the majority party will design those maps to its advantage.
The Supreme Court has not found partisan gerrymandering to be unconstitutional, although it has ruled that extreme versions of it could be. (In June, the Court once again passed on the option to define what would constitute 鈥渆xtreme.鈥�)
But the Court has struck down racial gerrymandering 鈥� and the growing correlation between partisanship and race has led some to argue that partisan gerrymandering often has racial implications.听 听听
Over the years, the practice has led to districts so engineered they鈥檝e lost all sensible shape 鈥� and, critics say, to elections that lead to preordained partisan results. Even though North Carolina voters are fairly evenly split along party lines, for instance, the GOP 10 of the state鈥檚 13 House districts. Democrats have done the same in Maryland, where House Republicans received in 2016 but won only one of the state鈥檚 eight seats.听
In Michigan, a lawsuit filed by听the League of Women Voters and a group of Democrats alleges that听the state鈥檚 2011 redistricting process was unconstitutional and the boundaries must be redrawn.听鈥淩epublicans weaponized the restricting process in order to target and dilute Democratic votes,鈥� reads a motion filed last Friday. 鈥淭he results have proved durable and powerful for Republicans, but they have meanwhile undermined the most fundamental and cherished rights in our democracy.鈥澨�
Calls to end, or at least rein in, partisan gerrymandering have been around for decades. Catherine Turcer, who heads one of the Ohio nonprofits behind State Issue 1, began her crusade in the late 1990s, when only a handful of groups saw redistricting reform as a cause worth fighting for. 鈥淵ou couldn鈥檛 even call it a coalition,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e had hearings ... but to even get redistricting reform on a legislative agenda was a really difficult thing.鈥�
The struggle continued through the 2000s, as Common Cause Ohio 鈥� Ms. Turcer鈥檚 organization 鈥� helped get measures听on the ballot that would reform the process at the state legislative and congressional levels. After a failed citizen initiative in 2012, Ohio voters in 2015 approved a constitutional amendment to form a bipartisan redistricting commission for the state legislature.
And then 2016 happened.
In its wake, Turcer sent out an email asking folks if they were interested in working to make elections more meaningful. 鈥淣ine hundred and eight people signed up,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 remember that number exactly.鈥�
鈥淲e were already on this path,鈥� Turcer adds. But after the election, 鈥渢here were many, many people who wanted to push back against things they saw that were violations of norms, or things that just struck folks as wrong.鈥�
Taking the politics out of politics?
Unlike Turcer, Fahey is relatively new to the game. She鈥檚 young 鈥� not yet 30 鈥� and until this spring, when she quit to manage Voters Not Politicians full time, she worked as a program manager for a recycling nonprofit.听听
But gerrymandering, to her, felt like the right issue to take on. It offended people鈥檚 sense of fairness, regardless of which party they were aligned with.听
In the months following her Facebook post, Fahey brought together a group of earnest, if non-expert, volunteers. There were lawyers, doctors, a retired mailman, a birthing doula, a pastor. They held dozens of town hall meetings and stayed up nights researching and writing a ballot measure to create an independent citizen commission that would draw a new congressional map for Michigan after the 2020 census.
The result was . Under the measure, the commission would consist of four representatives from each major party and five who self-identify as unaffiliated. They would be selected from a pool of eligible applicants by the Michigan secretary of state, with state lawmakers from each party allowed a set number of strikes, like attorneys in jury selection. Elected officials or candidates and their close relatives would be automatically ineligible. The commission would ultimately be required to draw a map that reflects the state鈥檚 racial and political diversity.
鈥淭he main thing we kept hearing was that people wanted a fair system, an impartial system, and a system that was transparent and they could participate in,鈥� Fahey says. 鈥淲e tried to take all of that very, very seriously and incorporate as much of that as we could into the final product.鈥�
Some aren鈥檛 buying it. In with The Atlantic, Tony Daunt, director of the conservative Michigan Freedom Fund, dismisses the idea of a truly nonpartisan, impartial system. He points to Voters Not Politicians鈥� ties to Democratic organizations like former Obama attorney general Eric Holder鈥檚 National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which donated $250,000 to the group. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a political process,鈥� Mr. Daunt tells the magazine. 鈥淭his idea that you can take politics out of politics is silly.鈥�
The Michigan Oak Initiative, a 海角大神 political organization, handed out flyers opposing Prop 2 at the state Republican Party Convention in August. Citizens Protecting Michigan鈥檚 Constitution, backed by the state Chamber of Commerce, fought the proposal . (They lost.) As of the end of September, voters favored the measure 48 to 32 percent, with 20 percent still undecided, according to an .
There鈥檚 also not a lot of data about how effective independent commissions actually are at preventing excessive partisan gerrymandering. over whether California, one of the few states that relies on a commission to draw its maps, has been able to mitigate partisan influence over its redistricting process. Another report that while Prop 2 could increase transparency and competitiveness, it could also make the redistricting process slower and more expensive.
Some critics question whether partisan gerrymandering is an issue worth tackling at all. There鈥檚 research to suggest that the problem is not as ubiquitous as it seems, and that 听鈥� choosing to live in communities with like-minded people 鈥� plays a bigger role than partisan redistricting in intensifying polarization and leading to uncompetitive elections.
And the shape of a district doesn鈥檛 always indicate how competitive it is, political analysts John Sides and Eric McGhee . Think Berkeley, Calif. 鈥� a district that looks 鈥渘ormal鈥� in the sense that it retains the integrity of a community boundary, but is politically homogenous anyway.
鈥淭he maps are a factor,鈥� says Tom Sutton, a political scientist who runs the Community Research Institute at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. 鈥淏ut another factor is turnout. How much should you focus on maps versus voter mobilization?鈥�
A sense that the system听isn鈥檛 working
Redistricting reform, in other words, comes with plenty of skepticism. The wave of interest surrounding it, however,听reflects a pair of driving factors marking this political moment: a sense among the public that the system isn鈥檛 working, and also that they 鈥� regular people 鈥� can and should try to fix it.
鈥淲e鈥檙e paying attention,鈥� says Dana Fisher, a sociologist at the University of Maryland who studies civic engagement. 鈥淲e are living in a moment of heightened awareness of what鈥檚 going on in this country, both right and left. That鈥檚 good. That鈥檚 how politics works.鈥�
Nancy Wang, a law professor who was one of the first to join Fahey鈥檚 cause, says Voters Not Politicians showed her the power that average people have to hold officials 鈥� and the system 鈥� to account. 鈥淚鈥檓 not happy with either party. I鈥檓 sick of the games they play with each other,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 really never imagined that a normal person, a non-professional in this space, could do what I鈥檓 doing right now ... that we could do something other than complain.鈥�
Back in Lansing, Fahey gets ready to leave for her next appointment. These days she鈥檚 got an assistant to help manage her schedule, and she鈥檚 already running late. But she pauses for a question about her post-election plans. If Proposal 2 succeeds, the group has its work cut out for it: They鈥檒l have to launch a new campaign, telling Michiganders about the commission, how they can get on it, why it鈥檚 important to the state and its citizens.听
If the proposal doesn鈥檛 get enough 鈥榊es鈥� votes, Fahey says, then that just means they鈥檒l be spending two more years trying to get a new measure through. 鈥淚t鈥檒l be a shame because there鈥檚 a ton of momentum [now],鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut it won鈥檛 stop us. It can鈥檛.鈥�
Previous articles in the Democracy Under Strain series:听A system under strain: Is US democracy showing real cracks?听and听Neutral no more: Can the Supreme Court survive an era of extreme partisanship?
