SNEK POLICY
Elected Officials Should Not Draw Their Own Districts
Politicians should compete within districts created by an independent process. They should not design the districts in which they compete.
Independent commissions
States should use independent redistricting commissions made up of ordinary citizens and people with useful expertise, such as statistics, geography, law, and community planning. Elected officials should have no direct role in drawing their own districts.
Mapmaking should weigh equal population, compactness, contiguity, municipal and county boundaries, communities of interest, minority voting protections, and reasonable competition without forcing artificial outcomes.
No incumbent protection
Mapmakers should not use incumbent home addresses to protect or target sitting politicians. Proposed maps, data, methodologies, meetings, significant communications, and revisions should be public, and citizens should be allowed to submit alternative maps.
Review should reflect real political support
A separate state review committee should evaluate proposed maps and objections. Its partisan representation should roughly reflect demonstrated statewide political support rather than automatically splitting power between two parties.
Members should serve two-year terms and no more than two consecutive terms, with no lifetime service ban.
Fair is not the same as fifty-fifty
Some communities naturally vote overwhelmingly one way. SNEK does not support distorting district lines merely to manufacture competitive elections. The goal is a neutral process, not a predetermined partisan outcome.
FULL POLICY DETAILS
The longer version
Why SNEK thinks this
Politicians should not be able to choose their voters by drawing districts around their own careers. SNEK also does not want to replace partisan gerrymandering with a supposedly independent commission that is quietly captured by one side. The process needs rules, transparency, and competing checks.
How it would work
Maps should be developed by an independent process using population equality, reasonable compactness, communities of interest, minority-voting protections, and meaningful competition as explicit considerations. Incumbent addresses should not be used to protect sitting politicians. Draft maps, data, public comments, and the reasoning behind changes should be visible before adoption.
Where SNEK leaves room
A fair map does not mean every district must be politically 50-50. Geography and real communities can naturally produce partisan lean. State review bodies should reflect demonstrated statewide political support rather than allow one party to dominate the process. Members should serve short terms, with a two-year term and no more than two consecutive terms before a break, so the mapmaking institution itself does not become another permanent political class.
Related SNEK policies
Political Competition and Representation • Voting Should Be Easy to Do and Hard to Question