From: Campaign Legal Center
Launch of Americans for Redistricting Reform
On July 29, the Campaign Legal Center announced the formation and launch of the website of Americans for Redistricting Reform (ARR), a national nonpartisan umbrella organization committed to raising public awareness of redistricting abuses and promoting solutions that benefit voters and strengthen our democracy.
The same day, ARR and many of its advisory committee members signed onto a letter to House leadership asking for hearings on two pending redistricting bills. “The faith of our citizens in government will be weakened and our democracy undermined,” the groups stressed, “if we continue with a system that allows elected officials to choose their constituents, rather than a system where voters choose their elected officials.”
ARR is comprised of groups from across the political spectrum that recognize the critical need to reform our nation’s redistricting process. Advisory Committee member organizations in ARR include: Brennan Center for Justice, Campaign Legal Center, Committee for Economic Development, Common Cause, Council for Excellence in Government, Fair Vote, League of Women Voters, Reform Institute, Republican Main Street Partnership, and U.S. PIRG. A number of civil rights groups are also involved in this project and have offered helpful advice and information on redistricting reform.
ARR partners have a wide variety of interests and viewpoints from across the political spectrum, they agree that there two essential elements to redistricting reform. The first is changing the procedures that states use to draw legislative districts, including the establishment of independent commissions, transparency and effective opportunity for participation by all segments of the general public. The second is establishing uniformly accepted standards for how to draw and evaluate districts, including adherence to the commands of the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act, competitiveness, partisan fairness, respect for political subdivisions and communities or interest, and compactness.
ARR activities are supported by the partner organizations as well as generous assistance from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
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