In preparation for the 2019-20 legislative session, Fair Districts PA and the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania will be convening a Reclaiming Our Democracy Town Hall in Harrisburg on December 1 in the State Museum of Pennsylvania Auditorium.
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To my fellow redistricting reformers, now that the dust has settled on your disappointing season, it’s time to take stock and review what you’ve learned from our Legislature’s latest round of “Legislating Without Results.”
Our bills are dead for this session, but our work is far from over.
Last week PA Senate leaders Corman and Scarnati published a letter to House leadership asking them to come back and finish the work of redistricting reform.
Fair Districts PA, allied organizations, and thousands of citizens have worked hard to shepherd redistricting reform bills through the legislative process over the last 20 months. We will NOT sit quietly by as politicians in Harrisburg try to derail that effort and preserve a self-serving status quo. There are just five session days left. We call on our legislators to pass a clean, strong redistricting reform bill now. No summer break until they do their job.
Hundreds of amendments have been offered to SB 22 since it was voted out of the House Rules Committee earlier this week. Fair Districts PA is watching three amendments with great interest.
The Aument amendment, adding provisions for regional judicial elections, was voted into Senate Bill 22 on June 12, largely along a party line vote (35-14). This was just minutes after a nearly unanimous vote (48-1) on the carefully negotiated omnibus amendment to strengthen the bill. Whatever the merits of the idea of judicial regions, we object strongly to its last-minute and unvetted inclusion as an amendment to SB 22.