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Oregon Redistricting in 2020

Monday, Feb 13, 2017
Daily Action:
After the 2020 census, Oregon will likely need to redraw its voting districts. Learn more about this issue and weigh in with Secretary of State Richardson regarding how to set districts fairly.
Educate yourself or others:
Redrawing districts to allow fair representation of people in each district is important, and often happens around the country when new census data becomes available – to make sure that voting areas represent populations as they grow and change. However, it’s a highly political process that includes some risks, mainly that partisan politics will draw districts unfairly to change the political majority vote for an area. (Also known as gerrymandering.)
To learn why redistricting matters for fair elections, check out the Brennan Center for Justice’s 7 Things to Know About Redistrictin, ,or Oregon Legislature’s Redistricting summary.
Oregon was most recently redistricted in 2011, after the last census. Oregon Common Cause presented a report on the process and recommendations for fair redistricting in the future, Oregon’s 2011 Redistricting: Successes, Concerns, and Recommended Improvements.
The Willamette Week has noted that new Republican Secretary of State Dennis Richardson has developed a panel to review Oregon redistricting processes, to prepare for 2020. It’s possible the intention is to change Oregon law to use an independent redistricting process, as California does, instead of redistricting by the legislature.
Act:
The panel convened by Richardson will meet every Wednesday during February and March, and those “Independent Redistricting” meetings are available to watch online: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/citizen_engagement/Pages/NonLegislative_Video.aspx

Contact Sec. Dennis Richardson (503-986-1523; oregon.sos@state.or.us) and ask him to commit that his redistricting panel will be representative of our state’s diversity, and to specifically recruit members if it is not.

Call your Democrat state legislator (you can find them on Who Represents Me in Oregon?) and ask them to attend the Secretary of State’s redistricting commission meetings during February and March. Thus far, Democrats have strategically refrained from joining the panel, but a nonpartisan process should include Democrats at the table.

Play the Redistricting game, to get familiar with how the process works! http://www.redistrictinggame.org

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