Lawmakers' power to redraw Pa.'s political maps could be more limited in 2021

[TexasTowelie]

HARRISBURG — Lawmakers are still in charge of drawing Pennsylvania’s political maps, but good-government advocates say a bill making its way through the state Senate would check the most egregious gerrymandering practices and boost public transparency when the process begins again next year.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Tom Killion (R., Delaware) and Lisa Boscola (D., Northampton), would require lawmakers to hold public meetings, make underlying data available for analysis, and set strict criteria for drawing congressional and legislative maps.

Lawmakers, for example, would not be able to disregard county and city boundaries to pack voters into a single district — one of the problems the state Supreme Court identified in 2018, when it overturned and later redrew the state’s congressional map.

The measure advanced out of the State Government Committee on Tuesday with bipartisan, though not unanimous, support. If both the full House and Senate pass the bill before the end of the year, and Gov. Tom Wolf signs off, the new rules would be in place when lawmakers begin drawing the maps in 2021.

Read more: https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2020/09/pa-gerrymandering-redistricting-lawmakers-rules-transparency/