help_outline Skip to main content
HomeEmailingsEmailings
Date: 9/11/2020
Subject: Gerrymandering - Saturday, Sept. 12
From: LWV - Zoom Program Alert



September monthly meeting
 
Please join us
Saturday, Sept. 12

Zoom meeting
9:30 sign on, get comfortable
10:00 a.m. Welcome
Zoom Meeting Link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84433585262
Call in number:  312 626 6799,  Meeting ID: 844 3358 5262  
 
Redistricting and the Battle Over Gerrymandering
Dr. Robyn Kuhlmann, PhD - Associate Professor, Political Science - University of Central Missouri

Pour a cup of coffee and learn all about gerrymandering with a regional expert. 



Gerrymandering
In Missouri, the civil war continues.
 
In 2020, it's for the boundaries of our legislative districts, and we'll vote on Amendment 3 Nov. 3.
 
In 2018, Clean Missouri, or Amendment 1 passed by a margin by nearly two-to-one. Missouri citizens stood on corners and at grocery stores for hours and days and weeks to get enough signatures to put the Missouri Constitutional Amendment on the ballot. While there are several elements in Amendment 1, one of the most important is that it will provide fair legislative district maps.
 
What we have now is legislators picking their voters, rather than voters picking their legislators. Because of the way the districts are drawn, in some districts, voters are "cracked," that is divided to dilute their general preferences or "packed," giving those legislators a safe district.
 
Both make for noncompetitive races and neither gives voters a choice. Amendment 1 calls for a nonpartisan commission to draw legislative districts, reduce donor and lobbyist influence by reducing campaign contributions and make legislative records available through the Sunshine Law. Legislative common sense. 
 
Unfortunately, after the 2018 election, Jefferson City legislators immediately went to work and now are giving us their Constitutional Amendment, 3, to overturn the citizens' Amendment 1. To date two courts have tossed out their rewritten version of Amendment 1. 
 
Our thanks to Dr. Kuhlmann for sharing her expertise with us.