Collection

Making voting maps fair

Solutions Journalism

Solutions Journalism Network

Washington, D.C.

Lawmakers across the United States are in hot water for drawing voting maps to favor their own political parties. The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard cases from Wisconsin and Maryland, and already this year federal and state courts have struck down gerrymandered districts in North Carolina and Pennsylvania as unconstitutional. Amid the court cases, citizen groups are assembling and proposing more fair ways of determining districting. 

This collection includes three success stories in the fight against partisan gerrymandering: how a massive citizen effort is getting off the ground in Michigan; how the slugfest to reform Florida’s system was finally won; and how Iowa established an independent agency to draw legislative maps more than three decades ago that is still supported by both citizens and lawmakers.

The fourth story sheds light on the challenge of proving that partisan gerrymandering is really happening. A statistic called the efficiency gap isn’t turning out to be as foolproof as some hoped.

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