Pa. To Redraw State, Federal Election Districts Amid Controversy

Pennsylvania's state Senate and House districts are due to be redrawn this year, along with its Congressional districts.

Pennsylvania's legislature is also considering a constitutional amendment to create judicial districts within the commonwealth.

Legislative and congressional redistricting occurs every 10 years, based on U.S. Census results, but will be delayed this year primarily due to circumstances related to COVID-19.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced in February that it will deliver redistricting data to all states by Sept. 30 this year, well past the original March 31 deadline. Pennsylvania is expected to lose one seat in Congress.

In Pennsylvania, Congressional redistricting occurs through the regular legislative process, but a special five-member Legislative Reapportionment Commission (LRC) holds responsibility for redrawing the state Senate and House districts.

Article II, Section 17, of the state constitution names the four caucus floor leaders as members of the LRC and tasks them with choosing a fifth member, who serves as chair. The constitution requires that the chair be a citizen of Pennsylvania who does not hold local, state or federal office to which compensation is attached.

On March 26, Pennsylvania's four caucus floor leaders took the initial step of calling for applications from individuals interested in serving as chair of the 2021 LRC.

Equal representation

Fair Districts PA, a nonpartisan grassroots coalition of organizations and individuals working to reform Pennsylvania's redistricting processes, recently began holding online events to educate the public about redistricting.

As Fair Districts speakers noted in an online forum conducted in partnership with the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Centre County in March, redistricting is a matter of fairness. It ensures that as populations change, becoming denser in some areas and less dense in others, each elected lawmaker continues to represent a fair and equal portion of the general population.

The biggest problem tied to redistricting lies in the practice of gerrymandering, when boundaries are manipulated to favor a single party or candidate. This includes splitting up residents in the opposition party into minority slivers in multiple districts, bundling them into just a few districts, or drawing a strong potential challenger out of a particular district.

The party in power in the state legislature controls the process for redrawing Congressional districts.

"Currently the Republican party is in control, but it could just as easily be the Democratic party," said Sue Sargo, co-president of the Centre County LWV. "Redistricting is not a partisan issue, the gerrymandering is, and both parties are guilty of that."

Refreshing the process

As part of the remedy to gerrymandering, both the LWV and Fair Districts are encouraging citizen involvement through Draw the Lines PA, a statewide civic education and engagement initiative.

Justin Villere, managing director of Draw the Lines PA, said any Pennsylvanian can access block population data from the U.S. Census and draw their own congressional and state legislative district maps using DistrictBuilder mapping software on the organization's drawthelinespa.org website.

Villere is encouraging Pennsylvania's teachers and students to use the platform to learn more about elections and redistricting, and also enter maps in a statewide contest for secondary school students, college students, and adults that will pay winners up to $2,000 depending on the category.

Additionally, provisions in House Bill 22 and Senate Bill 222, currently under consideration in the respective State Government Committee in each chamber, would generate greater public involvement by allowing citizens to submit their own state legislative district maps to the LRC for consideration.

Local effects

When it comes to representation in the state legislature, Morrisons Cove is a collection of close-knit communities occupying a valley that is split between two counties, two state House districts and two state Senate districts.

While it could appear confusing and even frustrating to have the Cove broken up this way, it actually provides some benefit, giving residents here some additional voices to speak for them in the Capitol.

State Sen. Judy Ward (R), who represents the Blair County side of the Cove in District 30, acknowledged that constituents of State Sen. Wayne Langerholc (R-35) on the Bedford County side sometimes inadvertently contact her district office for assistance.

"In these cases, helping our citizens always takes precedence over legislative boundaries," Sen. Ward said.

The same sentiment is shared by State Representatives Jim Gregory (R-80) on the Blair County side and Jesse Topper (R-78) in Bedford County.

Even more beneficial is the fact that Topper chairs the House Education Committee and Gregory serves on the Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee.

"I help him with agriculture issues, he helps me with education issues, and we work very well together," Gregory said. "I think the Cove benefits very well from our relationship."

In the state Senate, Ward is vice chair of the Education Committee and Langerholc chairs the Transportation Committee.

Cove residents will likely be isolated from any legislative boundaries that are redrawn next year.

Despite containing a small portion of Franklin County, one of the potential hallmarks of a gerrymandered district, the 78th House District's boundaries make sense to Topper "because the population growth has been to the East," he said. "It's not as easy to carve it up on a map as people think. Fulton County is a pretty large mass of land, but it has one of the smaller county populations in the state."

Judicial Districts

Tabled on March 24, Pennsylvania House Bill 38 seeks a constitutional amendment to create seven Supreme Court districts, 15 Superior Court districts, and nine Commonwealth Court districts in Pennsylvania.

Instead of voting for all 31 judges, voter choice will be limited to judges within each respective district.

It's something that Fair Districts PA organizers claim would tip the balance of power to the legislature and governor and prioritize location of residence over qualifications and experience.

"We currently have a nearly even party split with 16 Republican judges, 14 Democrats and one vacancy," said Debbie Trudeau, a Fair Districts PA spokesperson. "The real diversity goal here is to put more judges sympathetic to the current majority party on the State Supreme Court in particular."

Rep. Gregory, however, thinks the current system is grossly unfair to rural Pennsylvanians.

"I believe it's been since at least the 1940s or 1950s that our area has been represented by someone on the highest levels of our state judiciary," he said. "People of my district do not relate ... to the decisions that are being made on our Superior or Supreme Court levels [by] people typically from the Eastern and Western parts of the Commonwealth."

One thing he and Fair Districts PA do agree on is the notion that legislative gerrymandering needs to be curtailed.

"I was the prime sponsor of House Bill 2327 and fought to create an independent citizens' commission to draw the boundaries for the Congressional lines this year," Rep. Gregory said.

Although that bill received bipartisan support and sponsorship, it died in committee.

"My personal fight on this issue may not be the most interesting for the people of my district, and it's a very difficult issue to understand for just about anybody," he said. "What I think people should recognize is that three equal branches of government infringed unconstitutionally on the drawing of the map in 2018, and what we need to do is make sure that doesn't happen again."

Although redistricting authorities in Pennsylvania have not released a projected timeline for the 2020 Census cycle, Villery said he believes the LRC could be seated by late summer or early fall and develop a preliminary plan to hold public hearings in late 2021.

"A final [legislative redistricting] plan could be adopted in early 2022," he said, with any ensuing court challenges being brought by spring 2022.

Sources: govtrack.us, the Pa. Legislative Reapportionment Commission, pasenatgop.com, wikipedia.org