Barrett: Redistricting Wars Weaken the American People’s Voice
In case you missed it, Congressman Tom Barrett (MI-07) wrote an op-ed in The Detroit News today, describing how the current trend of redrawing congressional districts years before the next Census weakens American voters’ representation in Congress. Barrett urges passage of his Make It Count Act, which would ban mid-decade redistricting and determine future congressional districts based on citizenship.
You can read the op-ed here or below.
Last month, Virginians voted to let politicians redraw the state’s congressional districts ahead of this fall’s midterm elections.
The vote is just one of the latest developments in an all-out political brawl by both Republicans and Democrats to draw new districts in the middle of the decade to gain a partisan advantage in Congress.
Partisan redistricting isn’t a new issue, but what’s unusual about the back-and-forth we’ve seen in the last few years is the timing.
The normal redistricting process takes place every 10 years after the Census tallies up the U.S. population. Because membership in the U.S. House of Representatives is based on population, some states gain or lose seats after every Census. States that keep the same number of representatives also have to draw new district maps to adjust for population shifts in different parts of the state.
That’s what happened after the 2020 Census ahead of the 2022 elections, but now we’re seeing state politicians redistrict again — years before the 2030 Census — to help their party win a larger share of House seats. Texas, Missouri and North Carolina made more of their districts Republican-leaning. California and Virginia drew more Democratic-leaning districts.
This is not how our representative democracy is supposed to work, which is why I’m leading the fight to end this tit-for-tat and bring some stability back to American elections.
Earlier this year, I introduced a bill to stop this vicious cycle, part of my broader Blueprint for a Better America to reform our federal government and rebuild the trust of the American people. The Make It Count Act would prohibit states from redrawing their congressional districts mid-decade. Once a state redistricts after a Census, those districts would be locked in for 10 years until after the next Census. The bill would allow mid-decade redistricting only if a court determines a district map violates the Constitution or Voting Rights Act.
The current redistricting war is a disservice to the American people and undermines their representation in Congress. Each of the 435 U.S. representatives is the voice for about 760,000 people. We represent our districts effectively by getting to know the unique needs of the people we serve — the industries where they work, the universities and schools where they learn, the health care providers that treat them, the infrastructure that needs repaired and so many other details about their lives and the communities they call home.
Shifting the district lines in the middle of the decade undermines this effective representation and takes away voters’ ability to decide whether to keep or replace their representatives.
Importantly, the Make It Count Act would also require that congressional districts be based on the number of citizens in each community. Right now, some states have outsized weight in Congress because noncitizens and illegal immigrants, who aren’t allowed to vote, add to their total population for congressional representation.
Michigan has lost at least one congressional seat after each Census for the last five decades. If districts had been calculated based on citizenship, Michigan would currently have 14 representatives instead of 13. Instead, illegal immigrants counted in other states have diluted our voice in Washington, weakening our advocacy for Michigan’s communities, manufacturing, agriculture, the Great Lakes and other priorities.
Determining congressional districts based solely on citizenship and ending mid-decade redistricting would help prevent political gamesmanship that undermines fair representation for the American people.
Voters are rightfully fed up with the broken status quo in Washington, and by shuffling House districts just to stack the deck for political parties, states only deepen that distrust in our government. It’s time for both parties in Congress to come together, sign a truce and pass the Make It Count Act to end the partisan redistricting war.
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