Abstract
After an extremely partisan gerrymander in 2011, Wisconsin needs redistricting reform in order to eliminate partisan politics from the process. Now more than ever, momentum for change has reached its peak: the Wisconsin legislative maps as drawn in 2011 were ruled unconstitutional in Whitford v. Gill; the Supreme Court has recently ruled in favor of states implementing independent redistricting commissions; and nearly half of the states in the United States are beginning to use independent commissions for redistricting. This Comment proposes a unique approach for Wisconsin to adopt in order to curtail gerrymandering: the Wisconsin Impartial Citizens Redistricting Commission (WICRC). Under this scheme, Wisconsin would go further than other states and employ a commission comprised of nonvoting or seldom voting citizens who are selected by the Wisconsin Elections Commission in a process that parallels jury selection. The WICRC would be provided with population data and partisanship scores in order to reduce partisan bias while maximizing competition. While this approach may seem counter-intuitive, at the very least this Comment serves as a thought experiment in an effort to inspire redistricting reform in Wisconsin, and perhaps elsewhere in the United States.
Repository Citation
Joseph W. Bukowski,
Redistricting Reform in Wisconsin to Curtail Gerrymandering: The Wisconsin Impartial Citizens Redistricting Commission,
101 Marq. L. Rev. 233
(2017).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol101/iss1/7