Wisconsin’s legislative district maps have been a hot topic in the news. First, the Wisconsin Supreme Court declared that the state’s current maps are unconstitutional. Then other parties joined the debate and submitted new maps for consideration. Academics, legislators, activist law firms and even Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers offered versions of their vision for ideal voting districts for the state.

To help the Court with the task of reviewing these maps, the Court’s liberal majority hired two consultant political scientists, who dismissed maps drawn by the state Legislature and the conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty as “partisan gerrymanders not worthy of further consideration.” Unsurprisingly, Republicans claimed that the two consultants are biased.

But all this begs the question, what makes for a good redistricting map? Here to help us with the nuts and bolts of map-making is John D. Johnson, a research fellow in the Lubar Center for Public Policy at Marquette University.

 

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