SUPCO ruling shows need for redistricting reform

It is more clear than ever that a better, fairer system is needed. Because for the next ten years, as it has been for the previous ten years, the system of drawing legislative boundaries has been rigged. And the conservative arm of the Wisconsin Supreme Court thinks that’s ok. Ten years ago, republicans controlling the Wisconsin Legislature hired pricey attorneys to meet closed doors and figure out how to draw legislative boundaries so their party is virtually assured to remain in power. The result was maps that experts called some of the most gerrymandered in the nation. The newest maps, which will be in place for the next ten years are even more so. That after the state Supreme Court sided with the Republican maps just six weeks after approving Governor Tony Evers maps. For ten years now, Wisconsin taxpayers have been footing the bill for legal fight after legal fight over the fairness of the redistricting process. And with the Supreme Court decision, those maps are locked in for another ten years. Ten more years of undemocratic and unrepresentative government. That is why Wisconsin should adopt the Iowa model of redistricting, removing politics from the process and creating a nonpartisan panel to oversee the process. That state’s maps were adopted without a drawn-out and expensive legal fight. Wisconsin voters deserve better. We deserve a real democracy, where voters select their representatives, and not the other way around.