Fairer Maps, Not Fair Maps

By Irene Bugge

On March 3, the Wisconsin Supreme Court adopted the redistricting maps submitted by Governor Tony Evers. Local fair maps volunteers with Western Wisconsin for Nonpartisan Voting Districts and the League of Women Voters of St. Croix Valley celebrated the Court’s decision. They agreed with the Governor’s assessment that the maps are a “vast improvement from the gerrymandered maps Wisconsin has had for the last decade.”

When Jenelle Ludwig-Krause, lead organizer for WWNVD was asked about the Court’s decision, she said, “We consider this a partial victory. We have fairer maps. Not fair maps.”

Ludwig-Krause explained that in November, the WI Supreme Court decided to use “least change” as a primary consideration for choosing new voting district maps. Because of this limitation, the Court did not allow the governor to submit maps created by the nonpartisan People’s Maps Commission – maps that were given A plus grades by the Princeton Gerrymandering Project. Other potential maps were also ruled out simply because they were not ‘least change.’ 

“When the Court decided to keep as much as possible of the 2011 maps, we knew that the extreme gerrymander would be baked into the new maps. The maps the governor did provide to the Court were among the best submitted under the limitations of least change.”

The district lines of the maps chosen by the Court are very similar to the 2011 maps. They give partisan advantage to the majority party but with a few more competitive districts statewide. The maps do add two additional minority opportunity districts in the Milwaukee area when compared to maps proposed by the Legislature.