Court Challenge Press Release 2-8-2012

REDISTRICTING CHALLENGE FILED WITH STATE SUPREME COURT

February 8, 2012

            Today in the Washington State Supreme Court, John Milem, of Vancouver, filed a challenge to the redistricting plan adopted by the Washington State Redistricting Commission on January 1, 2012 and amended by the state Legislature on February 1, 2012.

            The Commission's plan provides boundaries for districts for the election of ten members of the U S House of Representatives from the state of Washington and boundaries for 49 legislative districts each of which elects one state senator and two state representatives.

            Mr Milem, an advocate for redistricting in the public interest, challenges the fairness, compactness, and convenience of the districts and the unnecessary divisions of counties and cities, divisions that are to be minimized under the law.  He also claims that the Commission's plan fails to encourage electoral competition nor does it satisfy the applicable standard of population equality.

            Mr Milem says, “The Commission has given seven congressional districts to the five metropolitan Puget Sound counties which have less than 60% of the state's population.  It gives three congressional districts to the other 40%.  A plan meeting the state constitution's fairness standard would give 60% of the people six districts and 40% of the people, four districts.” 

            People in the most rural part of the state, the North Cascades region, were divided among five congressional districts to give Puget Sound its seventh member of congress rather than being combined into a fourth district outside Puget Sound.  Most of these people have been submerged as minorities in three districts controlled in King and Snohomish counties, rather than being grouped into a single North Cascades congressional district.

            Mr Milem, who attended all 18 public forums held throughout the state and nearly every other meeting of the Commission, provided plans to the Commission for their consideration during the summer of 2011.  Mr Milem says that the plans he offered to the Commission were based upon compliance with the criteria which the state constitution and the state redistricting act provide to govern the Commission's work in drawing district boundaries.

            Mr Milem's preferred congressional plan divided only three counties.  The commission's plan divides nine counties.  Mr Milem's preferred legislative plan divided the populations of only nine municipalities.  The commission's plan divides 28.

            Mr Milem says, “It appears to me that the Commission's plan was drawn for the benefit of incumbents and the interests of the political parties.  My approach to redistricting is to think about what works for the average voter.  These districts are, after all, the people's districts, formed to allow the voters, as geographical groups, to select their representatives.  I don't believe that any citizen, elected or not, has any greater right to a district drawn for him than does any other citizen.  It is not clear to me that this is what the commission believes.”

            For further information, contact John Milem at 360.909.7592 or milemjohn@comcast.net or David Anderson at 360.317.6113 or david_john_anderson@hotmail.com .