FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Ross Sherman, RepresentUs PR Strategist, 207-749-2660, rsherman@represent.us
ALBANY, N.Y. – As expected, the Redistricting Report Card gave New York’s Legislature-drawn Congressional map an overall “F”. The map, which Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law last week, advantages Democrats and protects incumbents, and received a “C” in partisan fairness, an “F” in competitiveness, and an “F” in geographic features.
New York has an advisory redistricting commission, which produced two “A” maps: one drawn by Republicans and one drawn by Democrats. But because advisory commissions don’t have final say over maps, the Democrat-run Legislature was able to take over the process and pass maps with a partisan advantage.
“New York is a textbook example of extreme partisan gerrymandering. We’ve seen time and time again this redistricting cycle: When politicians of either party are in control of drawing maps, they’re going to rig districts to lock in as much power as possible,” said RepresentUs CEO Joshua Graham Lynn. “Redistricting commissions must be set up to prevent partisan capture. New York’s advisory commission process clearly failed in that effort, and the state must pass stronger safeguards to make it truly independent and nonpartisan.”
RepresentUs has been tracking the average grades for maps drawn by commissions and maps drawn by legislatures. Among states the Redistricting Report Card has grades for, commissions are averaging “B+” maps while legislatures are averaging “D” maps.
While states with any kind of commission are drawing fairer maps on average, not all commissions are created equal. Independent commissions are the gold standard because they are isolated from politicians, have strong standards for the maps, and use effective structural constraints to prevent partisanship. RepresentUs’s Gerrymandering Threat Index assigns gerrymandering risk to all commission states.
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