For Immediate Release Contact: Sen. Hansen
November 13, 2018 608-266-5670

(Madison)—State Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) announced today that he will re-introduce legislation to create a non-partisan redistricting process. The announcement comes on the heels of the election of Tony Evers for Governor. Governor-elect Evers pledged during his campaign to end partisan gerrymandering.

“With a new governor and redistricting coming up soon, now is the right time to pass legislation to create a non-partisan redistricting process. Voters in Wisconsin should have confidence that their votes count and that our elections are both fair and competitive,” said Hansen who has introduced similar legislation during past legislative sessions.

During the course of the redistricting debate and court case it became obvious that Republicans drew the maps to give themselves an unfair advantage in our legislative elections. And election results have borne that out as well.

“We now have four elections worth of data that demonstrate how rigging the maps has favored the Republicans in Madison. It’s fair to say that if the maps were drawn fairly they likely wouldn’t have the mandate they’ve claimed.”

Voters in five counties, Eau Claire, Sauk, Lincoln, Outagamie and Winnebago voted overwhelmingly in favor of creating a non-partisan redistricting process ranging from 65% support in Republican-leaning Lincoln County to 74% in Democratic-leaning Eau Claire County. In addition 41 county boards approved resolutions calling for non-partisan redistricting.

“These results, most of which do not come from what would be considered “liberal” counties give us a strong indication that Wisconsin voters from both parties, to a very large degree support passing non-partisan redistricting. They understand the fundamental unfairness of either political party being able to rig legislative districts in their favor and regardless of party, they want it to stop.”

Nationwide momentum is building to move to non-partisan redistricting models. Michigan, Colorado and Missouri all approved non-partisan redistricting. Utah is still counting the votes but it looks like that effort will also pass. That would bring the total to 12 states using non-partisan models for redistricting

“Support for fair maps is definitely building here and across the country. It’s my hope that now that more balance has been restored to state government more Republicans will understand that this is the best path for our state and they will join us in moving non-partisan redistricting forward.”

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