PHILADELPHIA (CN) — Those who advocate for reforming the way states draw their district maps say the next few years are critical for their movement, but advocates are divided on what new system to implement and the Democratic Party platform offers no specifics.
With states preparing to redraw maps with the new census in 2020, the Democratic Party platform's commitment to redistricting reform might be perfect timing for reform advocates.
Long the target of politicians complaining about hyper-partisanship or worrying about voting rights, the way most states conduct redistricting allows state legislatures to draw lines in ways that make their districts more favorable to the majority party or to protect incumbents.
The platform doesn't embrace a particular idea to solve the problem. While some experts are concerned about the platform's perceived weakness, others say the wording allows individual states to craft measures to fit their needs.
"Not specifying how they would deal with those issues makes some sense," said Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida.
If meaningful redistricting reform is to finally happen, McDonald said now is the time. With the 2020 elections still far enough in the distance to cloud any sense of which party will control the legislatures, state parties might be willing to embrace some reform as a hedge against the other party controlling the map when it comes times for lines to be redrawn.
Once a party knows it will control the legislature, reform efforts could die, McDonald said.
"By the time we get to 2020, things are going to become too political at that point," he said. "In some states, because the state governments are the ones drawing the redistricting plans, it may be fairly evident to everybody as to who's controlling the process and then it becomes a partisan fight at that point rather than a true good-government reform fight."
Dan Vicuña, national redistricting coordinator for Common Cause, agreed that the time is ripe for redistricting reform and said his group has active campaigns underway in North Carolina and Maryland to help push for those changes.
"You really don't know in some places what the state is going to look like in the next year ending in zero," Vicuña said.
Some states have already gotten ahead of this looming partisan deadline, adopting reforms that at least limit the power of state legislatures to stack the maps in their favor.
California, which Vicuña called the "gold standard" for reform, uses an independent commission that consists of five Democrats, five Republicans and four Independents to draw its maps.
The commission members are heavily vetted before the state auditor puts their names on a list. Party leaders are then allowed to strike people from the list before eight names are randomly chosen to serve on the commission.
Michael Li, senior redistricting counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice, said the set up has worked well, though in the limited sample of one election cycle.