The League of Women Voters hosted a presentation Monday evening at the Peterborough Town Library illustrating state and federal redistricting maps and one of the primary issues discussed was the need for an independent commission—rather than the state Legislature—to draw up the maps.
David Andrews of the Redistricting Data Hub began the evening by presenting a comparative analysis of the mapping work that began in May of 2021 as part of the NH Map-a-Thon Project, which was started by Open Democracy, the Kent Street Coalition, Granite State Progress and the League of Women Voters New Hampshire.
To date, more than 200 people have participated in the data collection, mapping and presentation of alternative maps for the 2020 redistricting process.
“The Map-a-Thon’s project is a transparent process, including the software, criteria, data sources, maps, and analysis tools,” Andrews said, adding that “interested citizens and legislators can replicate the maps to verify our conclusions.”
What is redistricting?
Redistricting happens every 10 years after the Census when legislative districts are redrawn. Districts for Congress must be as close as possible, while state legislative districts need to be within 10 percent of the ideal population.
The redistricting process is different in every state. In New Hampshire, the state House and Senate must pass new maps as bills and which are signed into law by the governor. As of now, all district maps are final for the 2022 election. They could be changed before the next redistricting cycle in 2030, Andrews said, by either court order or if the Legislature passes new maps.
Maps redrawn in the redistricting process include county commissioners (three districts in each county), state House (400 districts), state Senate (24 districts), Executive Council (five districts) and U.S. House (two districts).
“New Hampshire is unique in terms of redistricting mostly because of the New Hampshire House,” Andrews said, adding that with 400 representatives, floterial districts, apportioning reps by county and the state constitution not allowing towns or wards to be broken up, it becomes very difficult to come up with maps, let alone maps that are fair.
The need for redistricting comes because populations shift over time. Keeping districts with an even population requires the need to first count everyone, which is done with the Census. If the districts do not remain close in population after the new count, they must be redrawn.
Andrews spent a few minutes Monday evening explaining floterial districts and how they affect the Monadnock region. Floterials are districts that “float” over base districts, allowing smaller districts to be drawn and the excess populations to be captured by the districts.
“So lets say districts need to be made with about 3,000 people in each and you have two towns of 4,500 people in each. Each town is too large for one rep but too small for two reps, so you could combine both of the towns together and have a district with both towns and have three reps total,” Andrews said. “Or if you use floterials, each town could have one rep and then they could share one rep in a floterial district. This makes it so that not all three reps could come from one town, thus guaranteeing a more localized representation.”
From engineer to advocate
For Andrews, who quit his job three years ago as an electrical engineer in Milford and then toured the country in a van he outfitted himself, one of the things he learned in his travels is that a healthy democracy in the United States must involve election reform, voting rights and fair redistricting.
“Everyone on the road I met was super nice,” Andrews said, adding that this prompted the question, “So why does it seem like the country is going to crap?”
His focus on fair redistricting has allowed him to put his skills to work answering this question, and his conclusion is that politics needs to be eliminated from the process.
“Redistricting remains a heated political issue because, above all else, politicians and political parties want to win,” Andrews said, adding that since New Hampshire is close to being a 50/50 state, redistricting can guarantee either party will win.
And this can almost guarantee the outcomes of elections, he explained.
“It is much easier to move a few towns and shift the partisanship of a district 5 percent rather than convince 5 percent of a district to vote for you,” he said. “This is why we need an independent commission to draw our maps, not the politicians who benefit from drawing maps certain ways.”
The issue of gerrymandering
Gerrymandering is the drawing of electoral boundaries for electoral gain, according to Redistricting Data Hub, with the most-common forms of gerrymandering being political, racial, prison-based and incumbent-based.
In New Hampshire, the 2010 Executive Council map generally garners most of the attention in being a gerrymandered map, Andrews said, adding that the 2010 state Senate map “wasn’t much better,” and that the 2020 map is even worse.
“It packs Democrats into eight districts (4, 5, 10, 13, 15, 20, 21, and 24) while cracking them in the remaining 16,” he said. “This leads to a very lopsided map. With a nearly 50/50 vote in 2020, this map would have yielded a 15/9 majority for Republicans.”
Finding a more-balanced approach
Peterborough resident Terry Reeves attended the Monday night discussion. She is a member of the League of Women Voters and said she has been following the redistricting process for months.
“I’m glad there are people like David out there,” she said. “It was nice to hear about the process and that people are doing their homework. I’d like to see an independent commission deciding these issues and maybe that will happen when there’s a more-balanced state Legislature.”
For Andrews, the work continues when and if that happens.
“Most people from both sides of the aisle want fair redistricting,” he said. “People believe in fair play and that competition breeds the best candidates.”