Contact: Rep. Greta Neubauer
(608) 237-9166
Wisconsin deserves fair electoral maps
MADISON, WI – Today, Representative
Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) released the following statement regarding today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to remand Gill v. Whitford, the Wisconsin gerrymandering case, back to lower courts:
“The movement for fair, nonpartisan electoral maps lives to fight another day. For seven years, we have lived under electoral maps designed to preserve power for Gov. Walker and legislative Republicans, instead of allowing Wisconsinites to determine their own future through fair elections. This ruling is not a victory for these gerrymandered maps – it is an opportunity for Wisconsinites to show that these maps are indeed individually harmful to them, and to each and every citizen’s right to equal political representation.”
Wisconsinites devoted to equal representative democracy sued to fight Gov. Walker’s gerrymandered electoral map in 2016. That same year, a three-judge panel in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin struck down the state legislative maps. Today, the Gill v. Whitford case was not dismissed, but rather remanded to the District Court to allow the plaintiffs an opportunity to demonstrate they were harmed by the maps.
“Since I was elected this January, I’ve met people around Wisconsin who feel that the legislature intentionally took away their say in the democratic process by gerrymandering their districts. People should have the right to choose their representatives, not the other way around.”
“While we didn’t get a ruling on the merits of the case today, we still can act to fight gerrymandering in Wisconsin. Voters have a choice: We can sit and wait for years for change from the courts, or we can change the faces in our legislature and our governor’s seat this November. We can call on our elected representatives to adopt non-partisan redistricting reform. I am committed to empowering Wisconsin citizens and restoring fair elections to our great state, and my fellow Democrats agree – let’s take action together and solve this problem now.”
“This ruling is just one more step in the march against gerrymandered electoral maps. Today was not a victory for the Republicans who drew explicitly partisan electoral maps for Wisconsin. The fight for true representative democracy will continue in the lower courts, among our citizens, and in our statehouse,” Neubauer concluded. “The people of Racine and the people of Wisconsin have a right to fair electoral maps, and I won’t stop fighting until we get them.”
