Independence

Partisan elected officials should have no direct involvement in selecting commissioners, conducting the mapping process, and approving final district plans. Independence from legislative bias provides legitimacy to the redistricting process and guards against manipulation of district lines to protect incumbents or gain partisan advantage.

Design Principles of an Independent Redistricting Commission:

1. Choose commissioners from pools of applicants: the political party with the largest number of registered voters, the political party with the second largest number of adherents, and a third pool of unaffiliated or third party voters.
2. Advertise widely for commission applicants to attract a diverse range of voters across the state to serve on the commission.
3. Limit who can apply to serve to avoid conflicts of interest with public officeholders, candidates for office, party officials, registered lobbyists, campaign staff, and immediate family members.
4. Implement a transparent selection process carried out by a non-partisan entity using random selection to choose a majority of the commissioners.
5. Ensure communication between legislators and commissioners take place in public hearings or through public comment platforms accessible to all PA residents.
6. Guarantee final map decisions are made by the IRC by including an explicit fail-safe mechanism that will not allow final votes to be referred to any other entity.

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Transparent Public Process

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