The Fulcrum: In Illinois, coronavirus kills year’s last plausible redistricting reform vote
By Sara Swann
The Fulcrum
Opponents of partisan gerrymandering have been fighting uphill for years to make Illinois one of the biggest blue states to take mapmaking authority away from politicians. Now the coronavirus has doomed the latest such effort.
The General Assembly has been in recess since last month because of the pandemic and now says it won’t reconvene before Tuesday — two days after the…
KYFR: Anti-gerrymandering petition approved for signatures
By Jacob Notermann
KYFR
A ballot measure that would put the Ethics Commission in charge of redrawing district voting zones has been approved to collect signatures.
Organizers say they want the district lines to be drawn by an unbiased body, rather than the state legislature. The lines will be redrawn following the 2020 Census.
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The Fulcrum: Virginia becoming 9th state to end ‘prison gerrymanders’
By Tristiaña Hinton
The Fulcrum
Virginia prisoners will be counted in their home districts when congressional and state legislative maps are redrawn for the coming decade.
The state is about to become the ninth, and the third this year, to enact laws ending the practice known as “prison gerrymandering,” the term coined by critics for counting inmates as residents where they are incarcerated…