By Dr. Kay Park, President, League of Women Voters of Missouri

LWVMO Guide to State Action (2025-2027): Supports standards for apportionment to make congressional and legislative districts as compact, contiguous, and as nearly equal in population as possible with no partisan gerrymandering.

The new proposed map divides Kansas City District 5, which is currently compact, into 3 sprawling districts dominated by rural areas.  The LWVMO believes this new map was based on partisan gerrymandering.  It does not comply with the standards of fair redistricting or the Missouri Constitution.  Therefore, we oppose the redrawn map.

Key Redistricting Rules for Missouri’s Legislative Districts

(Missouri Constitution, Article III, Sections 3 and 7)

Compactness:  Districts must be compact in shape, not oddly shaped

1. Contiguity: all parts of the district must  be connected
2. Preservation of Political Subdivisions:  District lines should respect the boundaries of counties, municipalities, and other political subdivisions
3. Partisan Fairness:  Districts should not be drawn to favor any political party
4. Competitiveness:  Districts should promote electoral competitiveness
5. Protection Against Incumbent Favoritism:  Districts should not be drawn to favor or disfavor any incumbent or candidate

Three Lawsuits have been filed as a Result of Passing the New Maps

1.  NAACP challenges the legality of the special session, because there was no crisis to trigger it.

 2. Luther v. Hoskins:  a lawsuit claiming the Missouri state Constitution prohibits mid-cycle redistricting.  Based on Pearson v. Koster, 2012, the MO Supreme Court said that new districts will take effect for the next election and will remain in place for the next decade.

3. Wise v. State of Missouri:  ACLU is challenging the map as not having compact districts, meant to keep communities together who share similar interests.

LWVMO Supports People NOT Politicians

• Referendum to gather 116,000 signatures to put the gerrymandered map to a vote of the people
• Signatures must be turned in by Dec 11 to qualify.
• https://www.mobilize.us/pnpmo/

How and Why Redistricting is Done in the United States

How the Number of U.S. House of Representatives is Determined for States

• By federal law, the U.S. Census Bureau conducts a nationwide population count every 10 years. Population changes will affect the number of districts in each state.
• The number of voting representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives has been set by federal statute at 435 since 1913. (Established by the Reapportionment Act of 1929)
• When the population grows unevenly, states gain or lose seats from the fixed pool of 435, while the total number remains the same. 
• Seat reallocation: After the census, the 435 House seats are redistributed among the 50 states based on their new populations.
• For one state to gain a seat, another state must lose one. The total number of 435 seats never increases. For example, after the 2020 Census, Texas gained two seats while several states, including New York and California, each lost one.

Redistricting is the Process of Drawing Legislative District Maps

• After a state learns how many seats it has, it is responsible for redrawing its congressional district boundaries. If a state gains or loses a seat, its internal district lines must be redrawn to account for the change and ensure each district has a roughly equal population. 
• The overall growth of the U.S. population doesn't increase the size of the House. Instead, it increases the average number of people each representative serves.
• Districts must have as equal shares of the total population as possible.

Who Draws Missouri Maps?

• The Missouri General Assembly, consisting of the state House and Senate, draws the maps for the state's eight U.S. congressional districts.
• The redistricting plan is subject to the governor's veto, requiring a vote by the state legislature to become law.
• After the 2020 census, this process was contentious, ultimately resulting in the current map being signed into law by the governor in May 2022, with six Republican districts and two Democratic.
• In 2020, the General Assembly split Columbia into two districts to separate democratic populations, to gain a republican district.

Mid-cycle redistricting threatens the fairness and stability of our democracy.

• District maps should be drawn once every 10 years, after the census, to reflect population changes. Mid-cycle redistricting undermines this stable process and invites partisan manipulation.
• Frequent changes to district lines create confusion for voters, dilute community voices, and can be used to entrench political power at the expense of fair representation.
• Mid-cycle redraws are too often driven by political motivations rather than the needs of communities — they open the door to gerrymandering, where politicians choose their voters instead of voters choosing their leaders.