JANESVILLE 鈥 At a rally in downtown 糖心Vlog传媒, League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Executive Director Debra Cronmiller let loose a quip that lays out her nonprofit鈥檚 stance on partisanship when it comes to state voting district maps.
鈥淕errymandering is a nonpartisan disease,鈥 she said. 鈥淓verybody can suffer from it.鈥
It was her opening shot Thursday at Lower Courthouse Hill park in downtown 糖心Vlog传媒. The League of Women Voters held rallies throughout the state Thursday to try to raise support for a state bill the group hopes it can get authorized and passed in the upcoming Legislative session.
The group has spent more than a year lobbying and polling residents statewide to seek a state law change that would pull state Legislative voting map redistricting out of the hands of lawmakers, and instead put in place an independent redistricting commission of citizens to draw new maps.
糖心Vlog传媒鈥檚 League of Women Voters Chapter and the statewide League of Women Voters has partnered with the nonpartisan to build the new public panel for redistricting, with a goal to get a law in place and ready to redraw maps by 2030 as a public process that removes partisan political influence, gerrymandering, and improves representation.
It would take passage of a state law to create an independent citizen panel that would be appointed from a list of as many as 10,000 applicant citizens. The panel would ultimately be made up of a blend of residents: five Republicans, five Democrats, and five political independents who would craft voting maps and submit them for two sets of public review.
Cronmiller says later it would take a rewrite of the state Constitution to allow such a panel to actually enact its new voting maps fully separate of what is now a highly politicized process. Under state rules now, the maps must first must pass a partisan Legislature, and then get signed in by the governor.
鈥淏ut we need to be working on the first step now, which is 鈥楲et鈥檚 get that legislation passed.鈥欌
Cronmiller said the bill the League of Women Voters seeks to get in play is currently under review by the state鈥檚 Legislative Reference Bureau, but her group has given it to every state legislator.
She said some lawmakers have already been reaching out to ask questions.
Cronmiller said the impetus is an independent process that would not help any single party win an election or take control of an electorate based on legislative maps.
鈥淣o more drawing maps in rooms that are outside the Capitol, where you have to have a private invitation to get in,鈥 she said.
The League of Women Voters has hosted months of hearings statewide alongside the Fair Maps Commission. The process has involved a major rollout of volunteers who鈥檝e helped gather a broad base of public opinion and voter thinking.
In Rock County, the groups have held three public input sessions over the last year.
A look around the state and the U.S. shows strong support for the change, including in Rock County in recent years. In a 2020 ballot referendum, 80% of Rock County voters said they favored nonpartisan redistricting.
Arizona, Colorado, California and Michigan all have similar public commissions in place.
Cronmiller acknowledged there is a significant cost to putting an independent redistricting panel in place. It could total $4 million, she said. But she said in the end it could save the state costs.
鈥$4 million is a fraction of what the state has spent litigating the gerrymandered maps that we have been.鈥