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Commonwealth Forum: Should Pennsylvania Adopt 
a Citizens’ Redistricting Commission to Draw 
Congressional Districts?
YES
Gerrymandering is a pernicious problem in politics, fueling the flames of 
partisanship currently endangering the very essence of our republic. In a 
representative democracy, citizens should be able to choose their elected of-
ficials, not the other way around.

The congressional maps drawn by the Republican legislature and gover-
nor’s office in 2011 were so blatantly based on party identification that they 
ended up being thrown out by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court following a 
lawsuit in 2018. The districts were so carefully constructed to give Republi-
cans an unfair advantage that even though Democrats received a slim major-
ity of the votes for Congress, Republicans still won thirteen of the eighteen 
available seats. That means over 50 percent of voters preferred Democrats, 
but they received only 28 percent of the total representation. Such outcomes 
are outrageous and fly in the face of sound democratic principles.

One solution to stop elected officials from choosing their voters is the 
implementation of a citizens’ commission to draw district maps. A citizens’ 
commission would be composed of average voters using modern and simple 
software to draw up the next set of congressional maps after the 2020 census. 
It would also take politics out of the equation, as the commission would be 
looking to draw fair maps based on communities of interest, various govern-
ment boundaries, contiguity, and compactness. As the group Fair Districts 
PA, which advocates for such change, states, the process would be fair, trans-
parent, and accountable. Citizens’ commissions already exist in Arkansas, 
Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, and Washington.

Extreme gerrymandering leads to unrepresentative democracy or, in re-
ality, no democracy at all.

NO

The United S tates h as w itnessed a  number o f r eform e ras w here g ood- 
government groups have attempted to take partisanship out of politics. Po-
litical primaries, nonpartisan elections, council-manager forms of local gov-
ernment, and direct democracy were all well-intentioned examples of the 
reform impulse. These changes have done little to make the system less con-
tentious. The current reform du jour is setting up independent citizens’ com-
missions to stop partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts. 



Advocates argue that groups of private citizens will create maps that are 
electorally competitive and that do not benefit one party at the expense of 
the other.

Thirteen states give the primary power over map making to variations of 
these commissions. However, partisanship still seeps into the process. For 
example, in the 2010 cycle of redistricting, Colorado Republicans argued 
that one of the independent commissioners was a closet Democrat who 
swung the state legislative map to their opponents. Idaho found itself mired 
in lawsuits after problems seating the membership of the commission and 
the inability of the commission to create a map by established deadlines. 
Investigative reporting by ProPublica showed that California’s independent 
commission was influenced by a covert Democratic campaign to influence 
map drawing during local hearings throughout the state.

Beyond not working as advertised, citizens’ commissions are inherently 
undemocratic because there is no way to hold them accountable. At least we 
can vote members of the state legislature out of office if we disagree with 
their actions. The best solution for dealing with gerrymandering is to require 
supermajorities of the state legislature to pass new maps. This would require 
working across the aisle to create a map that is acceptable to at least some 
members of the minority party. We can never completely rid politics of par-
tisanship. However, this solution can smooth off the worst inclinations of the 
majority to use the redistricting process to their advantage.

For More Information

fair Districts PA (https:// www .fairdistrictspa .com) is a statewide organiza-
tion committed to reforming the existing redistricting process in Penn-
sylvania. Their goal is to set up a Citizens’ Redistricting Commission.

The National conference of state Legislatures (http:// www .ncsl .org/ 
research/ redistricting. aspx) provides overviews of how states redistrict, 
news about redistricting activities in the states, and webinars on the pro-
cess of redistricting.

Pennsylvania Redistricting: The Legislative Guide to Redistricting in 
Pennsylvania (http:// www .redistricting .state .pa .us) is the official state 
governmental website providing information about redistricting in the 
Commonwealth as well as data and maps.

From Pennsylvania Politics and Policy: A Commonwealth Reader, Volume 2. Edited 
by Michelle J. Atherton and J. Wesley Leckrone (Philadelphia, Temple University 
Press, 2019).




