HARTFORD, Conn. -- As Connecticut residents await the release of a congressional redistricting map, some voting-rights advocates say the mapmaking process so far has lacked transparency.
The state's nine-body bipartisan reapportionment commission has until Dec. 21 to complete the map for its five congressional districts, after requesting an extension from the Connecticut Supreme Court.
Joan Twiggs, director at large for the League of Women Voters of Connecticut, said redistricting in the state has been done mostly behind closed doors, after hosting four public hearings in September. She contended decision-makers could set standards to increase public engagement and share draft map proposals to boost community participation.
"There's no communication until the final product is revealed," Twiggs asserted. "So we would like an interim step, which is what some states have, and they call it the concept maps or draft maps, that are released prior to the final decisions are made, so that we can see what is the Legislature thinking."
If the commission misses the Dec. 21 deadline, the state's top court will appoint a so-called "special master" to draw the maps, as was done in the 2011 redistricting process.
Another change Twiggs pointed out she would like to see in the next redistricting process is the creation of a non-political body, similar to New Mexico's newly established Citizen Redistricting Committee. Although the group does not have the final say in redistricting, Twiggs noted they do develop and propose congressional, House and Senate maps, which makes it a much more open process.
"I would say our bipartisan is certainly preferable to a partisan methodology," Twiggs acknowledged. "But it's not preferable to an independent, nonpolitical process that puts the residents of Connecticut at the center of the redistricting process rather than the Legislature."
Connecticut House and Senate maps were finalized at the end of November. The state had one of the lowest rates of population growth between 2010 and 2020 in the country, according to U.S. Census data, with the majority of growth in the western part of the state's New York metro area.
