Redistricting

Every decade, states and local govern­ments redraw voting districts across the coun­try to take into account changes over the preced­ing decade. Done right, this process ensures that districts have equal popu­la­tions and that legis­lat­ive bodies are, in the words of John Adams, “a mini­ature” of the people as a whole. Unfor­tu­nately, redis­trict­ing is often instead waylaid by racial discrim­in­a­tion and partisan manip­u­la­tion, as those in power draw maps to manu­fac­ture outcomes to their own advant­age — a prac­tice called gerry­man­der­ing.

With the current round of redis­trict­ing taking place in 2021 and 2022, the Bren­nan Center is fight­ing for fair maps. This effort is all the more import­ant now that the Supreme Court has struck down crucial parts of the Voting Rights Act and said it won’t do anything to stop partisan gerry­man­der­ing. We’re lead­ing a campaign to reform how maps are drawn through smart solu­tions that ban partisan gerry­man­der­ing, strengthen protec­tions for communit­ies of color, and require trans­par­ency and public parti­cip­a­tion. We’re also support­ing the crit­ical work of grass­roots organ­iz­a­tions advoc­at­ing for their communit­ies during the map-draw­ing process.