Republican majorities would shrink but the party would maintain an upper hand in the Wisconsin Legislature under new redistricting plans proposed by the Democratic voters who convinced the state Supreme Court to declare the state’s Republican-drawn legislative maps unconstitutional.
Seven sets of map proposals were submitted to the court Friday afternoon by parties to a redistricting lawsuit that has generated national attention.
In its Dec. 22 opinion, the Supreme Court’s liberal majority said remedial maps must comply with the Wisconsin Constitution’s requirements that voting districts be compact, include equal populations and have boundaries that physically connect. That last requirement, known as contiguity, was the justification the court’s 4-3 liberal majority used to strike down current Republican drawn maps.
The majority said it would also consider “partisan impact” to measure political fairness of new maps, telling parties that it would take care to avoid picking new maps that favor one political party over another.
The proposals submitted Friday mark the beginning of the court’s efforts to replace maps that have helped Republicans cement lopsided legislative majorities in a state that’s otherwise known for close elections.
The point is that it's not fair, it's still biased towards republicans.
Fair doesn't mean a coin toss between who wins. It means that districts represent actual demographics.
I'm making no assertion about these maps in particular but just generally that forcing a 50:50 split doesn't make something fair if the split isn't there in reality.
Of course fair doesn't mean forcing a 50:50 split. Why would you think I thought that? Where in the world is there an election that does this?
The point is that these maps lean republican rather than representing actual demographics. That is what I mean when I write that they are biased.