[EL] Common Cause data on voter choices in the 2016 election

[Dan Vicuna]

Today Common Cause released Restoring Voter Choice: How Citizen-Led Redistricting Can End the Manipulation of Our Elections<http://www.restoringvoterchoice.org/>. This report details the extent to which gerrymandering denies voters choices this year in states in which legislators drew districts following the last census. We examine the percentage of districts in which campaigns were likely over before the general election because candidates from only one major party filed to run and a subset of those districts in which the campaigns were over even before the primary because only one person from a major party filed to run. Our research compares how states with different methods for drawing districts performed. The major findings are below and the entire report is available at www.restoringvoterchoice.org<http://www.restoringvoterchoice.org>.


*         Legislators are almost four times more likely than citizen redistricting commissions to produce congressional districts that deny voters choices in a primary and more than twice as likely to produce districts that deny voters choices in the general election.

*         Only one major party entered candidates this year in 47 - almost one in five - of the 250 congressional districts drawn by state legislators. That means that districts that are home to approximately 33 million people will likely have only one major party choice in the congressional election.

*         Competition flourishes where congressional boundaries were drawn by a citizen redistricting commission. Voters in all but eight percent of the districts in states with commissions will have two or more major party candidates on their congressional ballots next month.

*         Voter choices are even more limited in state legislative elections. Candidates from only one major party filed to run in 1,507 (43 percent) of the 3,506 legislative districts in states where legislators control redistricting. In citizen redistricting commission states, that number is 29 percent.

*         In 1,114 (32 percent) of the districts in those states, competition has been so thoroughly strangled that just one person sought a major party nomination this year, effectively ending the campaign even before the primary. This total is 21 percent in citizen commission states.

*         In eight states, a majority in the next legislature has probably already been decided. Candidates from only one major party in those states filed to run in 60 percent or more of legislative districts drawn by politicians.

*         In seven states, this year's state legislative campaigns effectively ended even before the primary election because only one major party candidate filed to run in more than half of the districts.

*         Several states stand out for the lack of choices they provide to voters. The 2016 "People's No Choice Awards" go to:

o   Fewest choices in congressional elections: Arkansas

o   Fewest choices in state legislative general elections: Georgia

o   Fewest choices in state legislative primary elections: Massachusetts

Dan Vicuna
National Redistricting Manager
Common Cause
Phone: (213) 623-1216
Twitter: @DanVicuna<https://twitter.com/danvicuna>
www.commoncause.org/redistricting<http://www.commoncause.org/redistricting>



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