Boyertown Library to Host Talk on the Need for Action on Election District Gerrymandering Reform

This is the winning map of Drexel Hill's Philip Hensley in the first Draw the Lines PA competition sponsored by the Committee of Seventy.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by Fair Districts PA.

A presentation on "Making Your Vote Count - Redistricting Reform," will be made at the Boyertown Community Library. 24 N. Reading Avenue, Boyertown on Monday, March 4, at 7 p.m. by a Fair Districts PA - Montgomery County leader.

Rich Rafferty

Rich Rafferty, the Fair Districts PA – Montgomery County lead, will explain why gerrymandering reform is critically needed in Pennsylvania. He will also explain why the participation of a motivated citizenry across Pennsylvania is urgently needed in 2019 to change how our Congressional and state legislative maps are drawn.

“It’s important to remember,” Rafferty said, “that the 2018 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that forced a redrawing of our 18 Congressional district maps will expire in 2021 and the same Harrisburg legislative leaders will then proceed under the old backroom rules, resulting in another 10-year cycle of gerrymandered Congressional and state legislative maps. We need reform legislation to be adopted in 2019.”

American politicians have practiced gerrymandering, the intentional manipulation of election district lines to protect incumbents and secure partisan advantage, for more than 200 years. In a profound distortion of the Democratic process, recent advances in mapping technology and voter data collection have made it possible for those who draw district lines in Pennsylvania to capture voting districts and control election results well before a single vote has been cast.

Gerrymandering made PA a national laughing stock with the former
7th District mocked by many as "Goofy Kicking Donald Duck."
I always thought it looked more like the Bullwinkle District (below).

Politicians have been selecting their voters through mapmaking rather than voters choosing their political leaders at elections.

Berks County, with a population of 417,000, should have seven state representatives with election districts completely inside the county. Instead, the gerrymandered, 2011 district maps gave the county nine state representative districts, of which five are split across adjoining counties.

Likewise, Berks should have one to two state Senate districts within its borders; instead, Berks County has four Senate districts, three of which are split across adjoining counties.

Montgomery County, with a population of 826,075 residents, should have 13 state representatives
with election districts completely inside the county.

Instead, the gerrymandered, 2011 district maps gave Montgomery County 18 state representative districts, of which six state representatives partially represent Montgomery County and an adjoining county such as Berks, Delaware or Chester. Likewise, all six Montgomery County Senators also represent another part of adjoining counties.

For example, part of Pottstown is represented to state Rep. Tim Hennessey, R-26th Dist., and all of the rest of his district is in Chester

How the 7th evolved into a joke through Gerrymandering.

County.

The interests of Berks and Montgomery County residents cannot be adequately protected in Harrisburg when elected officials have divided county loyalties.

Carol Kuniholm, the co-founder and chair of Fair Districts PA, said, “by any measure, Pennsylvania is among the most severely gerrymandered states in the nation. This means diminished choice for all voters. Our distorted districts yield a less accountable government that is unable to enact policy solutions or accomplish even the minimum requirement of the job -- to agree on a reasonable budget.”

How Gerrymandering skews election results.

Fair Districts-PA endorses redistricting reform legislation that puts redistricting control in the hands of an Independent Citizens Commission, operating transparently and with a minimum of personal voter data.

Its reform legislation, which secured bipartisan majority support during the 2017-2018 Harrisburg legislative session, was blocked by those few legislative leaders. Fair Districts-PA is back advocating for legislation that must pass during the 2019-2020 session.

Time is short! All are welcome to attend this education event to understand the problem, the proposed solutions and how every citizen can help end gerrymandering in Pennsylvania.

Area Pennsylvania legislators have also been invited to attend.

The Boyertown Library is located at 24 N. Reading Avenue, Boyertown, PA. The telephone number is 610-369-0496.

Click here to read Wednesday's Mercury editorial on the subject of gerrymandering.