Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times,
New York Democrats are moving to give state lawmakers the power to redraw the state’s congressional maps, entering the national fight over control of the U.S. House.
The proposed constitutional amendment would allow lawmakers to draw district lines themselves and redraw them mid-decade. It had not been formally filed as of Tuesday morning, but The Epoch Times has reviewed a memo describing the proposed changes.
The proposed amendment would change New York’s redistricting system in several ways.
According to the memo, state lawmakers could draw the maps themselves if the state’s independent redistricting commission fails to agree on a plan, and could approve maps with a simple majority vote rather than the larger vote the constitution now requires.
Court fights over the maps would go back to the Legislature, rather than to a court-appointed expert known as a special master.
And lawmakers could redraw congressional districts between the once-a-decade census counts.
The memo also lists new rules for how maps must be drawn.They would still bar maps that weaken the voting power of racial or language minorities and would still require districts to be equal in population and connected. The list does not include the constitution’s current ban on drawing districts “for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candidates or political parties.”
New York voters created the independent commission in 2014, approving a constitutional amendment meant to take map-drawing out of politicians’ hands. The system encountered issues the last time it was used.
After the commission deadlocked, Democrats in the Legislature drew their own maps. In 2022, the state’s highest court threw them out, ruling they were an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, and a special master drew the lines instead.
Source: ZeroHedge News
