“For over a year, SOMA Action has been a partner with the New Jersey League of Women Voters/Fair Districts Coalition.  We support their goals to reform redistricting in NJ, to make the process more “impartial, transparent, community-driven, and fair.”

Recently, our two assemblymembers, Mila Jasey and John McKeon, have sponsored a resolution, ACR 188 which, if passed would introduce an amendment to our state constitution to delay redistricting for state elections for any year that our state does not receive Census data by February 15 in the year following the Census.  While we know that action must be taken to address the inevitable delay in receiving Census data due to Covid, we question whether this bill is the right answer.

We urge our members to contact our assemblymembers to voice their concern with ACR 188 and SCR 123 (the corresponding bill in the Senate) and instead to support the reforms proposed by the LWV Fair Districts NJ.”

Dear Assemblymembers Jasey and McKeon,

Thank you for your continued leadership in the 27th district. As your constituents we feel very fortunate to have you representing us and for your reasoned voice in our state legislature.

We are writing because of a resolution you recently introduced and co-sponsored into the Assembly, ACR 188. This bill, if passed, would establish a constitutional amendment to delay state redistricting whenever NJ does not receive new Census data by February 15th in the year following the Census.  (If implemented, this means that the 2021 Assembly elections would use the current districts, and that the first election to use the new districts based on the 2020 Census would be in 2023.)  While we know that action must be taken to address the inevitable delay in receiving Census data due to the extraordinary circumstances surrounding Covid, we question whether this bill is the right answer.

We are concerned that a constitutional amendment in this case is overreach. The February 15 date when the Census Bureau traditionally provides data to New Jersey is not an official deadline, but rather a courtesy that the Census Bureau extends to our state as one of only two to hold its state elections in odd years. (Virginia is the other). This new amendment consequently could result in outdated districts being used for the first state election held after the Census, anytime the Census Bureau, for whatever reason, may not give our state data by February 15.

We wonder if a delay of a full election cycle is overreach as well. While we welcome legislation to address this unprecedented crisis, the current legislative districts have been in place for 10 years, while the demographics of our state have changed considerably.  A two-year delay in updating our districts would most detrimentally impact and disenfranchise residents of color in our state, whose populations have grown at a faster rate compared to white residents in the last decade.  Indeed, just recently, our primary election was delayed by a little over a month in response to Covid.  We wonder why a similar response is not being considered instead for 2021.

We are also concerned that a proposed change to our state’s constitution regarding redistricting does not also address the proposed improvements to New Jersey’s redistricting process which The New Jersey League of Women Voters and the Fair Districts Coalition have been lobbying for years. These proposals aim to make the redistricting process more transparent, non-partisan, and representative of all residents with regard to socioeconomic, demographic, and political characteristics, The state legislature has had ample time to act around these proposed improvements and we are disheartened that your proposed legislation does not address them.

Last, we are concerned with the rushed manner in which this bill is moving through the legislature.  The process used to determine new legislative districts, which will be in place for the next decade, is of premium importance. Thus, any changes to this process must be done with great deliberation and, most critically, with the participation of interested groups and residents of our state.

Again, we thank you for your thoughtful leadership as our representatives in the State Assembly. We also thank you for having the wherewithal and interest in tackling this unprecedented issue regarding the timing of the new Census data and our state elections.  A little over a year ago, you voted in the interests of New Jerseyans when you opposed a constitutional amendment which would have made our redistricting process more partisan and beholden to the interests of our legislators.  We ask that you consider the views espoused in this letter, and we hope that you will work with us as members of the Fair District Coalition, to support a redistricting plan that truly represents and considers the views and interests of all residents of our state.

Signed,

SOMA Action Board of Trustees