We are being played for fools by the Utah Republican legislators.
I streamed the Utah redistricting committee hearing on Sept. 22. I wasn’t shocked to see that the Republican Legislature didn’t learn anything from the court rulings about redistricting that directed that new maps be created consistent with the voter-approved Proposition 4.
The law did not specify how to determine if a map is gerrymandered or not. Instead, it requires that “the best available data and scientific and statistical methods” be used. The use of the word “methods” is important. Multiple methods will give a more accurate result than a single flawed one. If one method has a flaw, other methods can dilute the effect of the flaw.
Finding one metric is tempting. But what if that big, beautiful metric is flawed. We’re stuck.
That is exactly where we would be if Sen. Brammer’s bill becomes law.
The proposed test looks at the results of the elections for president, governor, attorney general, auditor and treasurer over the last three elections. According to the proposed test, a map is unfair if the new map shows a greater disadvantage to the minority party than existed in the benchmarked races.
It sounds very mathematical and scientific. Well, there is math there, but the benchmark hardcodes the current gerrymandered maps as the benchmark for a future gerrymander. A new map will not be considered gerrymandered if it favors the majority party by a margin slightly less than the map that the Utah courts ruled were gerrymandered.
It is nonsense to say that a map is fair because it is not quite as unfair as another unfair map.
Prop 4 was passed by a majority vote. Democrats alone could not have passed it. Let the voice of the people be heard.
Randall Howes, Salt Lake City
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