Wisconsin’s majority-Republican state legislature voted Tuesday to adopt new legislative maps proposed by the state’s Democratic governor aimed at countering gerrymandering, staving off a potential court-drawn map in an ongoing legal battle.
The legislative maps, which set the jurisdiction of state lawmakers, had been drawn by Wisconsin’s ... [+]
Wisconsin’s GOP-led Senate and Assembly both approved the maps, which were drafted by the state’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, in a move aimed at staving off a potential decision by the state’s liberal Supreme Court that Republicans fear could turn the tables even more heavily toward Democratic control, multiple outlets reported.
Lawmakers had been ordered by Wisconsin’s highest court to draw new maps by the 2024 election or else the court would adopt its own remedial maps.
Republicans currently hold a majority in the two chambers of the state legislature, with a 22-10 supermajority in the Senate and 64-35 majority in the state Assembly, despite Wisconsin remaining a coveted swing state in recent presidential elections, with fewer than 23,000 votes making the difference in four of the last six races.
State Democrats, however, had objected to the new maps on the grounds that they would come into effect in November, and not immediately.
Evers is expected to sign the maps into law.
If signed into law, Evers’ maps still give Republicans a narrow advantage over Democrats in retaining their majority in the state house, according to Marquette University public policy researcher John Johnson.
The new maps culminate the latest chapter in a saga over gerrymandering, stemming from a lawsuit filed in August by a group of Democratic voters who claimed the majority of Wisconsin’s districts violate a provision of the state’s constitution requiring all districts be contiguous. Some 50 of the state’s 99 Assembly districts, and nearly two-thirds of its Senate districts did not meet that standard. Wisconsin’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in December, ordering state lawmakers to redraw the legislative maps, with state Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky arguing the old maps “contain separate, detached territory.” The court, in that decision, ordered lawmakers to redraw the maps before the 2024 election.
Wisconsin is the latest in a string of states where tensions have risen over legislative maps. Last year, a pair of congressional maps drafted by Alabama’s GOP-led legislature were struck down, with a panel of federal judges ruling in September that the maps diluted Black votes and violated protections guaranteed under the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court had struck down lawmakers’ first attempt in June, calling the maps racial gerrymandering. Federal judges selected another map for Alabama drawn by a court-appointed expert in October for the 2024 elections. Lawmakers in Georgia were also ordered last year to redraw the state’s congressional maps, after a federal judge ruled its old maps discriminated against minority voters.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Orders New Legislative Maps: Here’s Why That Could Benefit Democrats (Forbes)