Pennsylvania is less than four months away from the 2022 primary.
The ballots will include one U.S. Senate seat. Right now, that is the only legislative position that isn’t in dispute about who it will represent because it represents every Pennsylvanian.
But when it comes to the rest — the 17 congressional seats and the legion of state legislative positions — there is still nothing set in stone.
This has to get done. It is unfair to the people and unfair to the candidates that this process is so delayed.
It isn’t all the fault of the people drawing the maps. The lag started in 2020 with the U.S. census. The decennial accounting of how many people live in the country and the states and how they have shifted is what we use to balance how many people represent the state in Washington and Harrisburg.
Coming up with accurate numbers amid a pandemic was not easy, and the Census Bureau reported by July 2021 that the necessary data for state redistricting would be delayed. That started the states out in a hole, and Pennsylvania has not climbed out.
According to FiveThirtyEight, the polling and election-tracking website, 33 states have completed their maps. Those include Pennsylvania neighbors Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia.
Pennsylvania’s congressional map needs to be decided by the state Senate and approved by the governor, and there is a deadline to get that done. Commonwealth Court will step in Jan. 30, and that sets up a completely expected trip to the state Supreme Court, which will only drag out the process longer.
Then there are the other two maps — the ones that carve Pennsylvania into state senate and representative districts. Those are decided by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission, which sounds like a separate, unbiased organization but is really just a member of the leadership of each party from each chamber with an unaffiliated chairman as a pivot point and tiebreaker. Those maps aren’t done either — and might not be until Feb. 18. Maybe later.
All of this is a problem because Jan. 24 was the day the Department of State needed them to make the May primary work smoothly.
Sure, the primary date could be moved. That happened in 2020 because of the pandemic, but that was a global act of nature. The inability of various departments of government to agree on where to draw lines doesn’t seem to rise to that level.
What really needs to happen is for the people drawing the maps to stop trying to draw them in an advantageous way and just focus on doing it fairly. And quickly.
— The Tribune-Review (TNS)
