Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order Tuesday that calls for the state legislature to hold a special session April 14 to promote a ban on partisan gerrymandering, according to the Cap Times.
This order executes one statement Evers made in his State of the State speech Feb. 17, confirming his stance on fair legislative districts and maps as a priority in his last months as governor.
Ensuring fairer legislative maps has been a topic of discussion in Wisconsin for more than a decade as political parties in power continue to shift, according to Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition.
WFMC claims that Wisconsin legislative districts are deliberately gerrymandered to provide a Republican majority within both the state Assembly and Senate.
District lines are determined every 10 years by census data to ensure equal population distribution and adherence to legal requirements like the Voting Rights Act to minimize racial discrimination, according to Loyola Marymount University Law School.
According to LMU, while many states have independent commissions which draw state and federal districts, there are still many states, like Wisconsin, that have not adopted this committee.
Due to the lack of independent districting commissions, the power of redistricting after each census lays in the hands of the legislators currently in the majority, according to WFMC organizing director iuscley Flores.
“Gerrymandering is a bipartisan disease, and depending on what political authority is in power, we assume that they’re going to gerrymander to protect their legislative power for the next 10 years after the census,” Flores said.
One of the ways to eliminate the issue of unfair districts would be through adopting an independent redistricting committee, which would limit the authority of elected officials in the process of creating these districts, according to LMU.
There have been efforts to create fairer maps like the new districts used in the 2024 election based on a 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling determining that the current districts were unconstitutional, according to University of Wisconsin political science Professor Barry Burden.
“These new maps were used in the 2024 election, and Democrats made gains in both chambers, because the districts were no longer skewed so heavily in favor of Republicans,” Burden said.
While the district lines in Wisconsin still heavily favor Republicans, there has been notable awareness spread and conversations prompted regarding redistricting, according to WFMC.
Advocacy groups like the WFMC, legislators and private citizens are working to ensure fairer district maps to increase the democratic process and equal representation in the state, according to WFMC.
“Wisconsites will have their voices heard, and these maps will more accurately represent Wisconsin’s partisan balance,” Flores said.
