Redistricting in Pennsylvania
The Problem:
Democracy means voters choose their politicians. Current Pennsylvania law lets politicians choose their voters.
Here’s how things are backwards: Current PA law puts state legislators in charge of redistricting—the process of redrawing voting districts, which happens every 10 years (after the census) to reflect population changes.
Letting legislators draw their own districts is a conflict of interest from the start, but there are many other ways it goes wrong:
Legislators work behind the scenes with no oversight or standards for fairness.
They use mapping technology and big data to profile voters, and use that information to pick exactly who they want in or out of a voting district.
They accept money from parties, super PACs, and outside interests, which all target PA because we are a populous swing state with lax campaign finance laws.
They can and do draw whatever boundaries will maximize their influence, minimize their accountability, and keep their seats in office secure.
Why We Need Redistricting Reform in PA:
The current process is redistricting gone wrong—a process driven by partisan politics, mapping technology, big data, and outside money.
The result is gerrymandering: the practice of manipulating voting districts to benefit parties, not people.
Gerrymandered districts give voters less voice and less choice, and we get polarization instead of problem-solving in Harrisburg and Washington. Here’s why:
Your vote counts less. Gerrymandering means politicians listen to party leaders and pressure from outside interests, rather than the people. Gerrymandering uses techniques like “packing” and “cracking” to target voters from a particular group, such as voters from the opposite party or minority or low-income voters, to reduce their influence.
We have fewer options at the ballot box. Competitive elections keep politicians accountable. But in the 2016 general election, incumbents ran unopposed in almost half of PA House and Senate races. Many voters feel understandably frustrated, so they disengage—which adds to the vicious cycle of unaccountability.
Politicians lose civility and can’t solve problems. When districts are designed to protect incumbents, new faces and new voices are kept out of office or discouraged from running at all, and those in office feel no need to play nice. There are lots of important problems we simply can’t fix if we don’t have a functional democracy.
What is Fair Districts PA?
Fair Districts PA, a project of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, is a nonpartisan, statewide coalition of organizations and individuals working to create a process for redistricting that is transparent, impartial, and fair.
Fair Districts PA is part of the League of Women Voters of the United States’ People Powered Fair Maps campaign, a national redistricting program of the League of Women Voters focused on creating fair political maps nationwide.
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