July 20, 2021: Interim State Government Committee Testimony

July 20, 2021

Interim State Government Committee Testimony

Chairman Miller and members of the Committee:

I am Dee Preglisaco, VP and Chair of the Redistricting Committee of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky.

The League is a nonpartisan civic participation organization, open to all people, age 16 and older. We don’t support parties or candidates but we do take positions on important public issues that affect our democracy.

Thank you, Rep. Miller, for giving the League this opportunity to speak in person to this Committee about this important subject, Redistricting. The League knows that it is the Legislature’s obligation under the Kentucky Constitution to draw maps for the redistricting that is required by the US Constitution every 10 years after the Census.

For the 2020 legislative session, and again this year, we supported legislation that would have set up a legislative citizen advisory commission on redistricting. In 2021 we supported a joint resolution. The legislation and the resolution would have required public hearings all over the State to enlist citizen participation in the Redistricting process. Citizens would be able to comment on their communities’ needs, proposed maps could be shared before voting on them, and a Redistricting plan could pass with broad bipartisan support and ward off the expensive and disrupting litigation that has plagued KY’s efforts in the past on at least 6 occasions.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?  An open and transparent process with public input.

We have labeled our effort: FAIR MAPS.  Good government is best when voters elect their representatives, rather than elected officials selecting their voters-we know that gerrymandering undermines democracy.  Parties have engaged in gerrymandering to suit their needs and in KY that has gone on too long and with the last CENSUS, both parties practiced gerrymandering in the House and the Senate. Citizens should have been paying attention to these anti-democratic practices. AN open, transparent process with public input is absolutely the better practice.

Good Redistricting makes it easier for voters to learn about candidates, communicate with their representatives, encourage parties to compete against one another, and for members of racial minority communities to elect candidates they prefer and REGIONS within the STATE to have their distinctive interests considered.

With the new Census data, the League will redraw possible maps reflecting population changes. You have a copy of the 2018 estimated changes. There will have to be some dramatic changes in some districts as the population has shifted to the I-65 and I-75 corridors and especially affect Western and Eastern Kentucky. Such shifts have and will affect people and support the need for public input.  Real people in real communities will undergo change.

In December of 2020 we sent you maps that we drew using the 2010 data and we will redraw the maps with the 2020 data when it is received. 

Our goal for fair and equal, as required by the Kentucky Constitution, is the same as yours. We also followed the legal rules of one person, one vote, providing racial districts of opportunity (the Voting Rights Act) and dividing counties ONLY when needed to meet population requirements. We also added our own rules - simple more compact boundaries, maintaining the integrity of county seats, and inherent in our long-standing policy, indifference to incumbents.

Do people care? Yes! As we have given Redistricting educational programs to groups all over the STATE, we have been struck by citizens’ interest and how they have felt left out of a process that affects them daily.  They know that what happens in Frankfort does not stay in Frankfort.  What the Legislature does affects all Kentucky, everyone.  With their involvement, even including drawing their own possible maps, there is less chance of continuing anger toward elected officials and the possibility of preventing litigation, always an expensive proposition.  

Once this redistricting has been done, it will not happen for another 10 years, an even greater reason for citizen buy-in.  The League supports citizens having a role in an open and transparent process, all good for the Commonwealth.