Letter to the Editor: County Mapping Good Example of Well-formed Districts

I read with great interest – and I must say, delight – your article “County Maps New Districts” (Oct. 1-8 issue of the Peninsula Pulse). Having some familiarity with the commonly acknowledged guidelines for drawing appropriate district boundaries, it appears that the ad hoc committee and county staff who were assigned this daunting task did their utmost to follow these guidelines. One can only imagine the negotiations and compromises (behaviors so shamefully absent at state and national levels) that were required to arrive at these well-formed districts.

Pat Scieszinski is quoted in the article as saying that the proposed map was drawn “without consideration of where current supervisors live, which is the way it should be.” To that could be added, “… and without consideration of which party a supervisor belongs to.” 

Redistricting is not about keeping incumbents in office and not about keeping either political party in power. Redistricting is about making sure that every voter has an equal voice in how our communities, states and country are run. 

The work done by the people involved in drawing up our districts should be an example to others of how to do this properly. We owe a debt of gratitude to the people who took on this challenging task. Their work should make all of us proud and thankful to be residents of Door County.

Mark Polczynski

Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin