In addition to gaining control of both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s office, Republicans may be able to count another victory after this month’s midterm election.

Included in the Republican’s wins in the election is redistricting rights for the next decade.

Redistricting is the process where state legislators change the congressional and legislative district boundaries based on population changes within existing districts. Redistricting is required every ten years, coinciding with the release U.S. Census, due out in March.

Redistricting encompasses both U.S. congressional districts as well as state Assembly districts.

Wisconsin’s redistricting, unlike some states, is performed by the Legislature instead of an independent commission, potentially giving the advantage to the new Republican majority.

Some fear a political party may set up favorable districts through “packing,” which means concentrating the opposing the party in one district, or through “fragmentation,” which is spreading the opposition out across many districts to minimize the impact of their vote.

Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, thinks the current redistricting process is a bipartisan issue, and Republicans will probably use the process as a chance to consolidate districts.

“We have actually one of the most disgraceful and secretive processes in the county,” Heck said. “It’s done behind closed doors by party leadership.”

Once a redistricting proposal is finalized it is treated just as a regular bill, in that it must be approved by both houses of the state Legislature and the governor.

Heck proposes using a system akin to California or Iowa which have nonpartisan citizen-based committees that draw new districts and result in more competitive elections, according to Heck.

Heck said there should be a nonpartisan redistricting committee to make the boundaries and to make them competitive – of the 132 seats, Heck said only 20 are truly competitive.

Heck believes Republicans will attempt to create favorable districts. But Heck pointed out that Democrats would have done the same had they been in power.

“It’s a bipartisan problem,” Heck said.

New legislative districts will be established in the 2011-2012 legislative session in time for local elections in April 2012. The first legislative elections in the new districts will take place in November of that year.

The Legislature must produce a plan that gives each district a balanced population.

In Wisconsin, the state must produce a plan so the difference in population between the most populated and least populated district is less than 10 percent, so all districts have relatively the same amount of people.

Historically, Wisconsin has put forth district plans with a population range of less than one percent. The Legislature uses numerous computer programs that take into account geographic features like rivers and lakes as well as political boundaries to aid them in redistricting.

Although they cannot use politics as a basis for their redistricting, even the LRB concedes the majority party setting up favorable districts is a goal of redistricting.