Judge: NY Assembly maps to be redrawn by dysfunctional redistricting commission
New lines will go into effect for the 2024 election cycle.
Not to be one-upped by the devolving New York City redistricting process, a new chapter in the ongoing statewide redistricting saga just got published. A state Supreme Court judge has ruled that the dysfunctional Independent Redistricting Commission must get the band back together to submit new Assembly lines by April 2023 that will be in place for the 2024 cycle. In a way, the state is right back where it started.
The problems with this year’s redistricting process go back to the 2010 cycle, and the 2014 constitutional amendment that created what was meant to be a bipartisan commission to take the politics out of redistricting. But as good government advocates have pointed out for years, the commission – evenly split between Democrats and Republicans – was doomed to fail, and lawmakers had written the amendment poorly.
When a judge tossed state Senate lines in April, it was done not because of gerrymandering, but because the state Legislature did not have the authority to draw and approve new maps when the redistricting commission failed to reach a consensus….
