To absolutely no one’s surprise, Wisconsin’s new maps for legislative and congressional electoral districts are headed to the courts. Last week, the state Senate and Assembly passed, along party lines, decennial redistricting maps that look an awful lot like the current ones drawn in 2011 — maps considered by the Washington Post and a federal court as among the most gerrymandered districts in the nation. Legislators tossed aside maps drawn by Democratic Governor Tony Evers’ nonpartisan People’s Maps Commission — even though the Commission’s maps would have preserved slight Republican majorities in the Legislature. At least two lawsuits are already in play, one filed by Republicans in state court, and a federal suit filed by Democrats. Barry Burden is the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
