Have you been following what came out of Arizona in the last year regarding voting and voting districts and gerrymandering?
The court hears argument Monday in an appeal by Republican lawmakers in Arizona against the state’s voter-approved independent redistricting commission for creating the districts of U.S. House members. A decision striking down the commission probably would doom a similar system in neighboring California, and could affect districting commissions in 11 other states.
It seems the voters of Arizona were sick of legislators creating very arbitrary voting districts of bizarre shapes just to protect legislators getting re-elected. The voters got together and created a vote to end it. The legislators, not liking it, have since taken this all to court in a lawsuit and it's now before the Supreme Court. They will decide.
Basically, the legislators want to overturn the people's will. Screw the people, the legislators are more important--to the legislators, anyway.
These same legislators are claiming the laws call for "the legislature" to create laws on this so they think it's against the law.
Mind you, these are, once again, "small government" Right Wing Republicans in Arizona trying to overcome the people's will.
This much, surely, is true--again, from the article:
Independent commissions such as Arizona’s “may be the only meaningful check” left to states that want to foster more competitive elections, reduce political polarization and bring fresh faces into the political process, the Obama administration said.
The thing is, every state, nationwide, needs to be able to overcome gerrymandering by legislators. We need government representatives--of the people--to create voting districts that are, once and for all, not supporting specific incumbent representatives and/or their political party. Arizona's state law here could be one step forward in a long trek to get and keep good legislation and laws that are for the people and not representing one candidate or one political party.
These kinds of efforts should come from no political party but especially not from one that insists it is for true, representative government, from and for the people.
Links: Will The Supreme Court Kill Citizen Redistricting Commissions?
Supreme Court Seems Divided Over Independent Redistricting Commissions
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