Evan Smith: A Reader’s comments about redistricting

By Evan Smith

ShorelineAreaNews Politics Writer

A column in November about Washington’s redistricting being done by a bipartisan commission brought comments from a reader at the end of December.

Here they are with my responses:

"Before the bipartisan Redistricting Commission completes its work, we need criteria by which to evaluate their map.

"For example, new district lines should:

"1) respect political boundaries, especially counties and municipalities."

 (State law sets this as a guideline, but federal court decisions requiring strict equality among districts override respect for political boundaries." That’s true in South Snohomish County, where the legislative district that covers Lynnwood, Mukilteo and most of Edmonds includes one precinct in Mountlake Terrace, and the district that covers Mountlake Terrace, Brier, Bothell and Woodinville goes a couple of precincts into Edmonds to keep the districts within the allowed deviation from the statewide average.)

"2) avoid pitting incumbents against one another"

 (The commission tends to protect incumbents in most cases, probably because decisions require three votes from the two Democrats and two Republicans on the commission.)

"3) avoid moving incumbents into different districts"

(Moving incumbents happens sometimes, but usually because big population shifts make it hard to avoid.)

"4) maintain geographical cohesiveness (avoid gerrymandered skinny or illogical districts):

 (State law says, “Districts should be composed of convenient, contiguous, and compact territory.” This policy and the bi-partisan nature of the commission make illogical districting difficult.)

"5) respect geographical boundaries, including interstate highways, rivers and mountain ranges"

(This tends to happen. I’ve never seen a congressional or legislative district straddle the Cascades. If census figures don’t require exactly eight congressional districts west of the mountains and two on the east side, the commission will join two districts along the area on the north bank of the Columbia River. Rivers and highways make logical dividing lines, but a river sometimes joins more than it separates, such as the Columbia River between Kennewick and Pasco.)

"6) respect U.S. voting laws by aggregating minority voters into majority-minority districts"

(This is less of an issue in Washington than in other states. It tends to be cured because housing patterns tend to follow natural geographic patterns.)

"7) create Democratic and Republican districts in roughly the proportion in which they vote"

 (I don’t think this is, or should be, State policy, but having Democrats appoint two commissioners and Republicans appoint two protects the interests of both parties.)

"8) create new districts in areas of greatest population change, not uniformly throughout the state"

 (This tends to happen through the process of creating substantially equal districts. For example, the new Congressional district is likely to show up in the South Puget Sound area where growth has been greatest.)

"9) districts should be centered on an urban area, if possible, with its own media, if possible"

(Expect to see the new 10th Congressional District centered around Olympia, as the 2nd District covers Everett and Bellingham, the 3rd centers around Vancouver, the 4th around Yakima and the Tri Cities, the 5th around Spokane, the 7th around Seattle and the 8th around Bellevue. I don’t know what the commission could do about the 1st District, which fills space between Seattle and Everett, or the 6th and 9th districts, which both include part of the Tacoma area.)

"In essence, educate the public to they can judge 'fairness' for themselves. Get the voters, the bloggers and the editorial boards involved so they can better judge the proposals. Get the geeks involved to they can offer credible alternatives. There are online mapping tools to make your own alternative."

(The commission must follow publication meetings and public-records laws; so the press and the public can follow their work. The commission has sophisticated census data, data that is available to anyone with internet access.)