By Mitchell Walters
The email below was sent to all of the members of the Districting and Apportionment Commissioner to register our extreme displeasure at the Commission’s stated decision to treat some of the MCA criteria for creating legislative districts as discretionary and to come up with their own Commission Goals to create “fair and competitive districts”.
Instead of following MCA TITLE 5. LEGISLATIVE BRANCH, CHAPTER 1. CONGRESSIONAL, SENATORIAL, AND REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICTS, Part 1. Districting and Apportionment Commission, 5-1-115 Redistricting Criteria:
“Section 2 (a) The districts must be as equal as practicable, meaning to the greatest extent possible, within a plus or minus 1% relative deviation from the ideal population…“
Dear Commissioners
We observed the public meetings last week regarding the redistricting of Montana and have read the Mandatory Criteria and Goals for Congressional Districts document that was published by you on or about July 9th. We are alarmed and extremely disappointed by the exclusion of section 5-1-115, 2 (a) in your version of the Redistricting Criteria.
Montanans voted in November and Montana now has a Republican state government trifecta, with a conservative Governor and both chambers with a Republican majority. To which they wrote and passed into law;
5-1-115MCA under Title 5 is the current law in the State of Montana. As private citizens, we must follow the law and as an appointed board, you too must follow the law. We do not understand why the Mandatory Criteria document, developed by this board, does not include all elements of section 5-1-115 of Montana Codes Annotated.
Personally, I have spent years as a public servant in law enforcement, we have other members who professionally worked with Federal and State regulations, others as attorneys. My point is that the elected politicians write the laws that the governed must abide by.
We strongly believe that;
Section 2 (a) The districts must be as equal as practicable, meaning to the greatest extent possible, within a plus or minus 1% relative deviation from the ideal population…
This section must be included in the Mandatory Criteria when developing the redistricting of Montana. The Troy Libby John Birch Society Chapter was able to meet this state law when we provided you Congressional District maps on June 29th. Any deviation beyond the plus or minus 1% would clearly be gerrymandering by this commission for political purposes.
The citizens spoke loud and clear that we want conservative law-abiding Montanans running our state, yet this commission’s intent is to operate outside of Montana State Laws based on your current criteria, which is unacceptable.
Sincerely,
Mitchell Walters
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“Taxation for non-essential government purposes is theft under color of law, plain and simple.When representatives tax our patience, that is a bridge too far”
Editors Note: The Opinion here was edited to reduce redundancy, clarity and repetition but message of “Extreme Displeasure” is kept in tact.
The views, opinions, or positions expressed here by the authors and those providing comments are the recordings of the individual rights of the people. Some comments, opinions or positions posted here may not agree with Montana Viewpoint
My comments sent to the Redistricting Commission:
As a citizen and resident of Black Eagle, Montana, I offer these comments on this critical process to ensure equitable, Constitutional representation:
According to the 20Jul Agenda, public comments are restricted to AFTER your decision is made.
This is unacceptable! To ensure public participation and transparency, Montana citizen comments must be considered in your decision process.
Please ensure citizen public comments are heard BEFORE your vote. It is only fair to the voters of our State. Do not ignore the People who have granted you the power to draw district lines, according to Montana Constitutional parameters.
Thank you for your efforts and consideration of the People’s input.
Please please please resist the notion that that ideology and ‘community’ are in any way enshrined in the Montana State Constitutional parameters for this redistricting process. Population is the essential criterium, and must be the first and most important consideration.
To make this process Constitutionally sound and litigation-proof, please keep districts as equal as possible in population. Accordingly, using a standard of 1%, with rare exceptions of up to 3%, will best fulfill constitutional requirements, while reducing the threat of legal challenges to all your hard work as biased and unfair.
Thank you for honoring the People’s trust in your efforts, and avoiding the pitfalls of litigation over gerrymandering.
Please do NOT use “Fair and Competitive Districts” as mandatory or discretionary criteria, even as a feel-good goal. This specifically violates the Commission’s other criterium, which states no plan will favor or disfavor a political party.
Again, these terms open doors to litigation, and are Constitutionally unsound criteria.
Thank you for all your efforts on behalf of the People! We are counting on you to make our votes count.
Thanks Sally…keep leading by example.