It has been nearly two months since the enactment into law of fair state legislative district voting maps for Wisconsin effective for the 2024 elections. On February 19, Gov. Tony Evers signed legislation establishing new and much fairer and more competitive Wisconsin Assembly and Senate districts submitted to the Wisconsin Supreme Court after the Court struck down as unconstitutional unfair, partisan gerrymandered maps rammed into place during 2021-22. Common Cause Wisconsin (CC/WI) and other reformers supported those maps because they were great for voters even if partisan Republicans and Democrats didn’t favor them.

Currently, the Wisconsin Elections Commission is working to get the new district lines in place and ready for the upcoming state legislative elections including for the August primary and the November general elections. These new maps, selected in part because they offered the most stability and certainty for Wisconsin voters and are less susceptible to a legal challenge than any of the other maps submitted to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, are likely to remain in place until the next decennial Census in 2030, followed by the 2031 redistricting process.

But these current maps are only a temporary solution until 2030-31. The current, completely inadequate and partisan redistricting system that caused gerrymandered maps to be enacted into law in 2011 and then again in 2021-22 is still “on the books” in Wisconsin. Therefore, a new law changing how redistricting is done in the future is essential for fair voting maps to survive and be made a permanent fixture of Wisconsin law.

On Saturday, April 20th fair maps proponents will be gathering in Wausau to begin to discuss this matter and start to map out a path toward achieving a nonpartisan redistricting process for Wisconsin to be in place and ready to accomplish redistricting of state legislative and congressional districts in 2031. CC/WI Co-Chair Penny Bernard Schaber, a former Wisconsin state representative from Appleton and many other fair maps advocates will be on hand to talk and learn along with you and every Wisconsinite who is interested in making fair voting maps and nonpartisan redistricting a permanent part of the political landscape in Wisconsin.

If you want to know what comes next for keeping fair maps for Wisconsin and want to have a direct impact on better policy and redistricting reforms and want to help keep state legislators accountable to the people of Wisconsin, then join leaders, activists, and people from across the state in an interactive and engaging planning event on Saturday, April 20th in Wausau. You can opt to attend in person or virtually. We need your voice to help with the next steps to ensure we have Fair Maps beyond 2024.

For more information and to REGISTER go here: https://bit.ly/FMC_StrategyPlanning2024

On Wisconsin!  Forward.

Jay Heck, Executive Director, Common Cause Wisconsin