Redistricting Reform After the Ohio and California Initiatives

On Tuesday, November 8, voters in California and Ohio rejected state constitutional amendments that would reform the process for redrawing congressional and legislative districts. Opponents of the measures cheered the prevention of a “partisan power grab,” while supporters lamented their failure to de-politicize the redistricting process.

Though the results from the Ohio and California initiatives are settled, the issue of redistricting remains alive and controversial. As political polarization increases and electoral competition decreases, the question of how legislative district boundaries are drawn will only grow more pressing.

Three of the country’s leading experts on redistricting will discuss the initiatives and their impact on the future of redistricting reform. Brookings Senior Fellow Thomas Mann will moderate the discussion with Bruce E. Cain, the Robson Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of its Institute of Governmental Studies, and Michael P. McDonald, assistant professor of government and politics at George Mason University and a Brookings visiting fellow. Mann, Cain, and McDonald are also contributors to Party Lines: Competition, Partisanship, and Congressional Redistricting (Brookings 2005)

Speakers will take questions after their remarks.