The Packers playoff loss was disheartening, but the game was fair.
Outdoor rallies were held in frigid weather in 17 Wisconsin cities on Jan. 21 to put the Wisconsin Supreme Court on notice as it hears cases on Wisconsin’s severely-rigged voting maps.
Every 10 years the state redraws voting maps.
In 2011, one political party drew and approved maps that became some of the most gerrymandered maps in the nation.
300,000 voters – about 4 Lambeau Fields of people – were moved to different districts to insure the Republicans controlled the Legislature.
That’s not a level playing field.
To be clear, Democrats do it, too.
No party is immune to gerrymandering.
But it is never fair to voters.
Over the last 10 years, gerrymandering has skewed election results.
In 2018, Democrats won all five statewide offices and 53% of the statewide vote, but Republicans still held 66 of 99 Assembly seats.
That’s like one football team having 20% more players on the field than it should.
With a Democratic governor and a Republican-majority Legislature, no single political party controls redrawing the maps.
The Legislature passed a “new” non-binding resolution recommending drawing maps with the “least changes possible,” and it redrew gerrymandered maps guaranteeing Republican control.
The governor vetoed them.
Without attempting a compromise, the Legislature sent the dispute to the courts. Wisconsin has a history of litigating maps.
In the 1980, 1990 and 2000 cycles, a federal court resolved the map disputes.
First, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court declared they would not redraw maps.
But they reversed themselves and now will – changing the decision in the middle of the game.
For the first time since the 1960s Civil Rights Act, the state Supreme Court, not the federal court, will resolve contested Wisconsin maps.
Taking its cue from the Republican resolution, the conservative majority of the court created a new “binding” rule: maps should be drawn with the “least changes possible.”
And those four Lambeau Fields full of people moved earlier?
Fairness to them doesn’t matter.
The “referees/legal monitors” say, “It’s a violation,” because the rule is just made up.
Moreover, by refusing the lower courts the opportunity to hear cases and gather evidence about the effects of gerrymandering, the court turned off the “instant-replay cameras.”
Thus, we are stuck in a critical “game” with the conservatives on the court making up new rules favoring one party over the other.
So, we marched in 18-degree weather to tell the Supreme Court we see it using the corrupted playing field, refusing to look at “instant-replay footage,” changing decisions and making up new rules during the game.
Through years of referendums and county resolutions, 80% of Wisconsin voters have made it clear.
We want a level playing field.
A fair court would give us fair maps.
– Sara E. Ramaker and Jane Benson