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Letter to the Editor: Act Now for Fair Maps

Wisconsin citizens want nonpartisan redistricting. In Madison, Wisconsin legislators are busy working on a biennial budget for our state. Please urge them to fund nonpartisan redistricting maps – a far better use of taxpayer money than their February allocation of a million dollars in contracts for lawyers to fight for maps they likely will fashion in secrecy, as they did in 2011. Such gerrymandering corrupts Wisconsin politics and prevents good government.

Election fairness requires maps to be drawn through a transparent process by a procedure that is “party blind” so that districts are not distorted to favor one party, and so that every Wisconsin citizen’s vote actually matters. A nonpartisan redistricting process keeps the reins of government from being preempted by a powerful minority of whatever party or persuasion.  

Other states do it successfully, and so could we. But this will happen only if many thousands of us continue to demand it. So far the legislature has ignored the will of the people, expressed overwhelmingly for Fair Maps by means of county resolutions and referenda throughout Wisconsin.

So please send an email with your comments to the Joint Finance Committee at [email protected], as well as to our local legislators: Sen. André Jacque at [email protected] and Rep. Joel Kitchens at [email protected].

Karen Wilson 

Egg Harbor Wisconsin