http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/wi-fair-maps-s5.jpgSee the maps for yourself, and let your legislators know it’s time for them to listen.

MADISON - "Wisconsin’s legislative and congressional districts should be drawn with voters in mind, not the politicians who will seek to represent them. The people of Wisconsin have been the north star of the People’s Maps Commission since our first meeting. It is no different now that we have shared the final maps with the people, Gov. Evers, and the Legislature this week.

When we first began our work well over a year ago, we held a virtual hearing in each of Wisconsin’s eight congressional districts. At those hearings, we listened to people from all over our state who gave both verbal and written testimony. We heard that under the current districts, too many communities were split, representatives weren’t responsive enough to their constituents, and districts weren’t electorally competitive.

With that input in mind, we adopted our map drawing criteria. These criteria emphasize keeping communities intact by creating compact districts that avoid splitting counties, towns, or communities of interest—defined as geographic areas in which residents share common interests that deserve consideration by elected representatives. By focusing on communities, districts would naturally become more competitive, and representatives would—by necessity—be responsive to constituent concerns. Our criteria intentionally did not consider incumbents or the current districts—doing so would have only favored politicians and the very districts Wisconsinites told us were flawed.

To apply our criteria, we kept listening to Wisconsinites. At our public input portal, portal.wisconsin-mapping.org, people from every corner of the state submitted communities of interest, full redistricting plans, and even more written comments. All told, we’ve heard from nearly 2,000 Wisconsinites in 68 counties and 321 municipalities. We’ve also received over 800 communities of interest, which we’ve distilled to around 35 commonly submitted communities. All of that input is visible on our portal for anyone to view.

Meaningful public input and transparency are necessary to create fair and representative maps for the people of Wisconsin. That’s why we’ve listened to Wisconsinites for over a year. We listened before we started drawing maps, and public input formed our community-centered criteria. We listened while we applied that criteria, trusting that Wisconsinites know their communities best. We listened as we released two sets of preliminary maps and worked to incorporate public input to create maps that would represent the people, rather than politicians.

See the maps for yourself, and let your legislators know it’s time for them to listen and to make these maps a reality for the voters of Wisconsin."

- People's Maps Commission

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The People’s Maps Commission is a nonpartisan group comprised of representatives from all eight Congressional Districts who were selected by a panel of retired judges and are charged with drawing new, impartial maps in the redistricting process. More information about the People’s Maps Commission is available at Wisconsin.gov/PeoplesMaps.