The Washington state Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved a measure that seeks to create more transparency around the state’s redistricting process.
The redistricting commission consists of four voting members — two Democrats and two Republicans — appointed by legislative caucus leaders.
By law, at least three of the four had to agree on new political maps by Nov. 15. After going into a scheduled public meeting via Zoom at 7 p.m. the night of the deadline, the commissioners went into closed-door caucuses, which drew criticism. They then voted hastily just before midnight without showing the maps they just voted on, and later acknowledged they had missed the deadline.
Commissioners defended their work creating maps for the 10 U.S. House districts and 49 state legislative districts, saying they were hampered by a late 2020 census, limitations caused by the coronavirus pandemic and technological issues such as crashing computers. In December, the state Supreme Court said the plan adopted by the Washington Redistricting Commission “substantially complied” with statutory deadlines and declined to adopt a new redistricting plan for the state.Two weeks ago, a Latino civil rights organization and others filed a federalThe legal action in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington targets state Legislative District 15 in Yakima, which is majority Latino.
Last month, the state Supreme Court declined to hear two legal challenges, filed separately by the Washington Coalition for Open Government and Arthur West of Olympia. The suits, which sought to bypass the lower courts and get a direct review from the higher court, argued the legislative and congressional maps must be invalidated because commissioners violated open meeting laws, negotiated secretly for hours before the Nov.
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