In a nearly unanimous vote, the Dane County Board Thursday passed a resolution to create a Citizen Redistricting Commission in an effort to promote impartial, nonpartisan redistricting.

Since 2014, the board has sought to have non-elected officials play a larger role in the next redistricting process. Supervisor Hayley Young, District 5, said the board hopes to have districts that are more representative of the people who actually live in them.

County committee recommends citizens take larger role in redistricting process

The citizen commission, which will be comprised of either nine or 11 members, will include nonpartisan Dane County residents who don’t work for the county government, nor have an official position with a partisan or lobbyist organization, Young said.

In creating an independent commission to overlook the redistricting process, the board hopes to reduce gerrymandering — the process by which district lines are redrawn to favor one political party over the other.

“It’s important to have nonpartisan redistricting and have people who are independent from [the political process] that are members of the community,” Young said.

With the independent commission, Young said she believes there will be more geographic diversity as each district serves nearly 13,000 citizens. In addition, she said it’s great that the people who will be impacted by redistricting are able to serve on the commission itself.

The next redistricting is slated to occur in 2021 after the completion of the U.S. Census in 2020.