(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Redistricting and the Native Vote: Voting Rights Act compliance concerns ahead of public hearings – Daily Montanan [1] ['Nicole Girten', 'More From Author', '- August'] Date: 2022-08-25 Montana’s Districting and Apportionment Commission will be kicking off its month-long series of public hearings on the University of Montana campus on Friday, but commissioners already have sparked debate over new legislative maps, with the Voting Rights Act front and center. On Monday, Republican Commissioner Dan Stusek tweeted excitement over the month to come, albeit as an intro to ask local news editorial boards to cool it with the criticism of Republican maps and check out the proposals from Democrats. Democrat Commissioner Kendra Miller fired back. “Are you expecting a lot of criticism of your extreme partisan gerrymanders that violate the MT Constitution and dilute Native voting power?” Miller said in her own tweet quoting Stusek. This exchange encapsulates the dispute between Republicans and Democrats on the commission that was on full display during their Aug. 2 meeting, when each of the commissioners first presented their maps dividing the state into legislative districts. The commission, made up of two Democrat and two Republican commissioners with a nonpartisan committee chair, is formed every 10 years to draw the congressional and legislative maps based on census data. The commission voted on the congressional district map last fall. One of the core arguments Miller made was that the Republican maps presented did not comply with the Voting Rights Act, a requirement outlined in the Montana Code Annotated. Brennan Center for Justice Researcher Peter Miller, whose area of focus is redistricting and hails from Billings, said the good news is that all four commissioners did a pretty good job of representing Native American populations in the state in their map proposals. “The concern would be that you would have Native populations drawn into a district in which they’re represented by someone else,” Peter Miller said. “The commission has responded to that claim admirably in the sense that there’s equitable representation for Native populations across these four proposals.” Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works in part to reform systems of demo­cracy and justice. Peter Miller said that the Voting Rights Act concerns primarily the 6 percent Native population in the state as it is more compact, as opposed to the 4 percent Latino population, which is more diffused across the state. The Native population in combination with other races raises the total to 9 percent in the state. He said that given the population size, there should be six Native majority districts, and that each of the proposed maps from the commission get at or near that goal. If the final map misses the mark, it could end up in federal court, but the current maps’ proximity to the goal doesn’t mean they all were made without political considerations. For example, Peter Miller pulled up Republican Commissioner Jeff Essmann’s map proposal, HDP1. In that map, there are six Native majority House Districts, but Native populations could be drawn into fewer Senate districts. “One concern may be ‘Sure, we’ll give you six House Districts that have Native majorities, but are you going to have any representation in the State Senate?” he said, with the grounds for potential litigation being lack of representation in the Senate chamber. He compared Essmann’s map to Commissioner Joe Lamson’s proposed map, HDP2, which he said could end up with both six majority minority State House seats, but also three Senate seats. Lamson is a Democrat. “Whether or not we think this is more equitable or a better outcome, it was interesting to me to see the consequence of nesting State House seats within State Senate seats,”he said. “You end up with only one out of three opportunities to draw a viable Senate District who would have a Native majority in the Senate.” This was a point Kendra Miller drove home during the early August meeting, at one point asking Essmann if he was worried about the Republican plans not complying with the Voting Rights Act, “because you’ve eliminated majority minority senate districts on both of your plans.” Essmann said no, and he deferred to expert analysis, but Miller continued to press him. “You have eliminated a majority minority Senate District on your plan on the Hi-Line, right? You’ve split them apart. So you’re not sure if eliminating majority minority districts that elect candidates of choice violates the VRA. Is that the question?” Miller said during the meeting. The map Essmann proposed has the two majority minority districts along the Hi-Line drawn apart, whereas both Democratic maps have them drawn together in a way that could make for a third majority minority Senate District. Essmann said that the commission needs to honor the VRA, but said that the contours of what complies with the VRA have been “pretty dynamic over the last decade.” * * * The commission adopted criteria for legislative districts last summer, requiring districts be “as equal in population as is practicable” within a 1 percent deviation with certain exceptions and comply with the VRA. Districts also must be functionally compact in terms of distance and in one piece. The commission also agreed to goals for the districting process, which serve as priorities but not requirements, that includes language that no map favors one political party and that district competitiveness be considered. The commission’s first public hearing was planned for Aug. 25 in Pablo at Salish Kootenai College. However, in light of the recent passing of Anita Matt, the commission announced it would be rescheduling at the college. Western Native Voice has been vocal throughout the commission’s work on redistricting and encouraged participation in the process, hosting informational sessions and videos explaining the process. The organization is also one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit over three bills that passed during the 2021 legislative session that they say violate state constitutional protections for voting, and unfairly discriminate against Native Americans living on reservations. In a video titled “TipiTalk: Your Voice and Redistricting,” Political Director for Western Native Voice Keaton Sunchild explained how Native populations in the state were undercounted during the 2020 Census. “It’s important that we kind of write that wrong through the redistricting effort, so making sure that the lines are drawn so that Native voters are able to elect their candidates of choice,” he said. “If we don’t see fair representation, we’re worried that that progress that we’re making, and we’re going to build on, will kind of be shut down and progress will be stalled,” he said. All four maps proposed by commissioners are available on the commission’s website, as well as a full list of public hearing times and locations. 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