(C) Minnesota Reformer
   This unaltered story was originally published on MinnesotaReformer.com [1]
   Licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 [2]
   ------------------

Advocates say Minnesota’s new elections maps don’t capture growing diversity

By:   ['Rilyn Eischens', 'More From Author', '- February'], Minnesota Reformer
Date: 2022-02

Our Maps, a coalition of advocacy groups, said during a Wednesday news conference that the congressional and legislative redistricting plans released Tuesday by a Minnesota court panel don’t capture the state’s growing diversity and won’t ensure fair representation for people of color.

“It’s time that we move to an independent, community-led process that puts the power where it belongs: in the hands of Minnesotans across the state,” said Annastacia Belladonna-Carrera, executive director of Common Cause Minnesota.

The Legislature is tasked with redrawing legislative and congressional maps after each decennial census, but legislators historically have failed to reach an agreement on new boundaries. The job has fallen to the courts for the past 60 years.

The court panel described their changes this year as “restrained.” The judges wrote that they are “not positioned to draw entirely new congressional districts, as the Legislature could choose to do,” and instead modify existing districts as necessary with “politically neutral redistricting principles.”

Moon Duchin, founder of the Metric Geometry & Gerrymandering Group at Tufts University, said 90% of Minnesotans would remain in the same congressional districts under the proposed maps.

For Duchin, that’s concerning.

“To me, that suggests a lack of dynamism and listening to the voices of the changing communities around the state and an ability to respond to the representational needs,” Duchin said.

Todd Stump of Our Maps said the new maps aren’t all bad, however. Our Maps was one of four organizations that submitted their own map proposals to the courts for consideration, and some of their recommendations were implemented, he said.

For example, the court’s plan puts all seven Ojibwe tribes in the same congressional district for the first time, which strengthens the voting power of tribal members, Stump said. Senate District 51 would include both east Bloomington and Richfield, a change requested by Latino and East African residents of the area, he said.

If the Legislature can’t agree on new maps, and the courts aren’t in a position to significantly change district boundaries, it’s time to put an independent commission in charge, Belladonna-Carrera said.

“The time for just applying political pressure is over. It’s just not working,” she said. “Courts know that their role is limited. Its job is not to represent constituents. They need to be removed from the process.”
[END]

[1] Url: https://minnesotareformer.com/briefs/advocates-say-minnesotas-new-elections-maps-dont-capture-growing-diversity/
[2] Url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Minnesota Reformer via Magical Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/MnReformer/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.