Guidelines for Transparency in Local Government Legislative Redistricting
The great majority of what is written about legislative redistricting
focuses on state and federal redistricting. But many cities, even some
towns, have districts too, and resetting district boundaries is an
important political process designed to prevent public participation and to undermine public trust.<br>
<br>
<em> </em>In January, an advisory board of experts and representatives
of good government groups got together to articulate principles of
transparency in the redistricting process. <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0617_redistricting_statement.asp…; target="”_blank”">A
short
document</a> has just been published, which summarizes the
principles identified during that meeting, focusing on data and
software, rather than, for example, public hearings and open meetings.
The summary is valuable not only for local government redistricting,
but for all sorts of transparency (e.g., budgets and developments), because it takes into account the
latest technology, including geographic information software and
open-source software.<br>
<br>
Providing access to information in a form accessible to open-source
software is important, because whereas governments often use very
expensive, sometimes tailor-made software, open-source software, such
as Google Docs, is available free to the public. Data in a dead-end format is of little use.<br>
<br>
Geographic information software can show important information about
each district, or each set of boundaries, in a visual format, so that the data can
be better understood, and so that district alternatives can be better compared.<br>
<br>
Transparency according to these guidelines will allow far more public
participation than has ever been possible. Who votes where should never
again be decided in backrooms for the benefit of political parties or
individual elected officials. Boundaries will have to be justified in
the light of far more, and far more accessible and easy to understand
(because visual), information.<br>
<br>
For more on transparency in redistricting, see <a href="http://swdb.berkeley.edu/resources/redistricting_research/Transparency_…; target="”_blank”">an
essay</a> by Bruce E. Cain and Karin Mac Donald of Berkeley's Institute
of Governmental Studies (2006), and a Reform Institute publication from
2005 (attached; see below, especially pages 11-15).<br>
<br>
For the ethics of local redistricting, see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/556" target="”_blank”">an earlier blog post</a>.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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