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Friday, August 07, 2015

Hogan to launch plan to redraw Maryland’s convoluted congressional districts

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan launched a commission on Thursday to propose a new system for drawing congressional districts, which past governors have manipulated to give their parties an electoral advantage.

Hogan (R) pledged during his 2014 gubernatorial campaign to end the practice of creating meandering voting districts that is known as gerrymandering. On Thursday, he said he was creating an 11-member panel that would conduct statewide hearings and recommend a new process for determining the boundaries of the state’s eight congressional seats.

The end goal is for Hogan to draft a constitutional amendment that would give control of the redistricting process to an independent body, rather than politicians. The proposed amendment would have to be approved by both houses of the General Assembly, which are controlled by strong Democratic majorities. If it passed the legislature, the amendment would then be placed on the ballot for voter approval.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I were a democrat in Maryland why would I want the process changed? In their opinion the "system" is working perfectly.

Anonymous said...

Good luck on getting the district lines changed. As 9:01 expressed, in the Democrats' minds, "If it ain't broke it don't need fixing." Hogan has clearly pointed out that a clear majority does think that it is broken, and that those who persist in promoting its brokenness are manipulating a system that's supposed to be equitable for all voters, but only turns out the same self-perpetuating problems and problem children.

Anonymous said...

There needs to be a 'worse' alternative in order for the current voting block to approve it...they like the way it currently is...

Our only hope is that enough of them won't vote in the upcoming elections and enough of us will!