Anticipating that the Democratic governor and GOP lawmakers won’t be able to agree on a map, concerned citizens and redistricting advocates are lobbying the state Supreme Court to intervene.
HARRISBURG — The state House is expected to vote on a proposed congressional map this week, as spring primary deadlines and a lawsuit that asks Pennsylvania’s highest court to take over the highly consequential process loom large.
The panel’s chair, Rep. Seth Grove , first put forth a map drawn by a well-known redistricting advocate — former Lehigh County Republican Commissioner Amanda Holt — and hailed it as a response to public pressure to remove lawmakers from the redrawing process. While Republicans controlled both the executive and legislative branches a decade ago, Wolf’s role as governor gives Democrats the opportunity to reject the proposal and let the state courts handle the process.The state’s top election official has asked to receive the final congressional map by Jan. 24 in order to meet the first deadline associated with the spring primary.
Two lawsuits targeting the map — one from a group of residents who live in population-dense areas, the other from mathematicians and scientists seeking a “data-driven” process — were filed in Commonwealth Court in December. The parties who brought the suit have also asked the state Supreme Court to immediately take over the case. The court could issue a ruling on the request at any time, or decline to respond to it.
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