Four of Pennsylvania’s most powerful lawmakers are accepting applications to chair the redistricting commission, and advocates are hoping for independence.
Carol Kuniholm — chairperson of Fair Districts PA, a nonprofit group advocating for redistricting reform — said she’s concerned lawmakers will use the delay as an excuse to limit transparency and public input, which has been minimal in previous decades.
A bill advancing in the state Senate would set strict criteria for drawing congressional and legislative maps, and make underlying data available for analysis.
While an effort to create an independent commission to draw the state’s congressional and legislative maps has run out of time, a new bill would increase transparency and ban the most egregious practices.
The 70-page complaint is rooted in a consequential — and forthcoming — political process: the census.
National grassroots organization Swing Left said it will help with volunteer and fundraising efforts in more than 20 districts statewide.
