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Oct 29, 2018 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
Awesome news for redistricting reform! The U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to hear the GOP's appeal paves the way for more state supreme courts to use their state constitutional guarantees of the right to vote & "free elections" to ban gerrymandering like PA's Supreme Court did
North Carolina (Antia Earls) & Michigan (Sam Bagenstos & Megan Kavanagh) have key 2018 supreme court races where progressives can gain the power to use their state constitutions to constrain gerrymandering. State supreme courts are the future of anti-gerrymandering litigation
This is why North Carolina Republicans are plotting to pack the NC Supreme Court & flip it to GOP in December if Dem Anita Earls loses & their deceptive judicial gerrymandering amendment passes. Vote Earls & no on all 6 NC constitutional amendments #NCpol dailykos.com/story/2018/9/7…
Here's how we can strike a critical blow against GOP gerrymandering: Elect more Democratic governors who can veto bad maps & appoint state supreme court justices who will strike them down. These are the key governor's races for 2020s redistricting dailykos.com/story/2018/7/1…
They do, but when GOP sued all to the Supreme Court over it in 2015, Roberts wrote an angry dissent that would've stricken it down while Kennedy was the key vote to uphold. SCOTUS could soon invalidate all voter-initiated laws for congressional elections
Exactly. John Roberts may be an enemy of voting rights & a friend of GOP gerrymandering, but he isn't a burn-it-all-to-the-ground nihilist to achieve those goals like Gorsuch & Thomas
NEW: In a groundbreaking development in the fight for #FairMaps, the U.S. Supreme Court paves the way for state supreme courts to strike down GOP gerrymanders by rejecting the GOP's appeal of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling curtailing gerrymandering dailykos.com/stories/2018/1…
PA's Supreme Court threw out the GOP congressional gerrymander & replaced it with a much fairer map. 2018 Dems are poised to win 4-7 more seats than they did in 2012-2016 thanks to the map & this year's Dem wave. See its electoral & demographic stats here: dailykos.com/stories/2018/2…
A good counterpoint of caution that this outcome isn't set in stone. But the Supreme Court's decision not to take up the Pennsylvania GOP's appeal is still an encouraging sign for redistricting reform
If redistricting happened today, Republicans would draw half of congressional districts & Dems less than 10%, very similarly to after 2010. But 2018's governor & state supreme court elections give Dems a huge chance to change that for fairer maps dailykos.com/stories/2018/1…

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Stephen Wolf Profile picture
Dec 16, 2021
PA's redistricting commission has proposed a very fair state House map. Biden won 102 districts to Trump's 101, & Biden won the median seat by his statewide margin. Sharp contrast to the prior GOP gerrymanders that elected GOP majorities even when Dems won more votes in 2012/2018
Under the current GOP gerrymander of Pennsylvania's state House, Trump won a 109-94 majority of districts despite Biden winning the state by 1 point, & Trump won the median district by 3 points. The commission's proposal would strongly reduce the odds of future GOP minority rule
Here are the Dave's Redistricting versions of the Pennsylvania bipartisan commission's proposed legislative maps. The state House map is very fair & is likely to prevent a repeat of last decade's GOP minority rule
Senate: davesredistricting.org/join/028ce4a0-…
House: davesredistricting.org/join/bcb680dd-…
Read 5 tweets
Stephen Wolf Profile picture
Nov 9, 2021
Nevada is one of the very few states where Dems control redistricting. They've proposed a modest gerrymander aiming to keep the 3-1 Dem majority, but all 3 Dem seats only backed Biden by 7-8 points & could be vulnerable in a GOP-favoring year. DRA version: davesredistricting.org/join/5ec729ee-…
If Nevada Dems were willing to propose a Texas GOP-style extreme congressional gerrymander, they could have made all 3 Dem districts go for Biden by 14-17 points instead of 7-8, but connecting Reno to Las Vegas was probably never going to fly for Dems davesredistricting.org/join/ca4af7d2-…
Nevada Dems also unveiled legislative gerrymanders that give them an unfair edge (though not nearly as big as the GOP did with GA, etc.). Biden won the median Assembly & Senate seats by 8 & 6 points more than statewide, respectively davesredistricting.org/join/a8089c68-… davesredistricting.org/join/ce311e6d-…
Read 4 tweets
Stephen Wolf Profile picture
Nov 2, 2021
NEW: Voting rights are on the ballot today in three key states: Virginia, New York, & Pennsylvania. My new story looks at the key ballot measures, legislative & governor elections, & judicial elections that could reshape voting rights [thread 1/9] dailykos.com/stories/2021/1…
Virginia Dems have passed dozens of voting reforms since taking power in 2019 for the first time in decades, passing automatic & same-day voter registration, an Election Day holiday, & much more. But that progress is threatened if the GOP wins today
VA's last 2 Dem governors used executive orders to end lifetime felony disenfranchisement, leaving only those in prison unable to vote. But if Glenn Youngkin (R) wins, he could restore a racist Jim Crow remnant that until 2016 had banned 1 in 5 Black voters, 5x the rate of whites
Read 9 tweets
Stephen Wolf Profile picture
Nov 2, 2021
North Carolina state House Republicans have passed their new state House gerrymander in committee. Voting rights advocates sued last week, & the 4-3 Dem state Supreme Court could block it like the state courts did with the GOP’s past gerrymanders in 2019 southerncoalition.org/breaking-civil…
North Carolina Republicans are so blatantly dismantling Voting Rights Act-protected Black legislative districts that it seems they’re counting on SCOTUS killing off the rest of the VRA. With a more sensible judiciary, this map would get struck down in a heartbeat
North Carolina Republicans have passed their new state House gerrymander in the full state House, dismantling certain Black districts protected by the Voting Rights Act. A lawsuit was already filed as noted upthread
Read 5 tweets
Stephen Wolf Profile picture
Oct 29, 2021
Voting rights advocates have filed the first North Carolina redistricting lawsuit of the 2020s cycle, & it assuredly won't be the last in a state that has seen more litigation over GOP gerrymandering than nearly any other. The GOP is drafting maps that crack several Black seats
Notably, this lawsuit was filed in state court instead of conservative-dominated federal court. Dems hold a 4-3 majority on North Carolina's Supreme Court in the event that any redistricting lawsuits eventually reach them next year
Voting rights advocates filed their lawsuit noted in my previous tweet roughly an hour after North Carolina Republicans filed their new gerrymander proposals as bills. See @will_doran's story for more details on the proposed maps: newsobserver.com/news/politics-…
Read 4 tweets
Stephen Wolf Profile picture
Oct 29, 2021
If Virginia Democrats hold onto their state House majority on Tuesday, one critical reform they should pass is a constitutional amendment to move state elections from odd to even years. Turnout could *double* & become much more demographically representative of the citizenry
Just imagine how differently the last several state elections could have played out had Virginia held them in high-turnout even years instead of in odd years when voters of color, young voters, & low income voters are less likely to turn out compared to older wealthy white voters
Constitutional amendments in Virginia must pass both before & after a state election followed by a referendum, so Dems would have to hold the legislature in 2021 & 2023 & get voters to approve an amendment in 2024, meaning even-year state elections would be a ways off regardless
Read 4 tweets

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