Wattson Plaintiffs Release Proposed Minnesota Legislative District Plan

The lead plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of the current congressional and legislative districts have proposed a new plan for Minnesota’s legislative districts. The plan uses the new population data derived from the 2020 census. After receiving public comments on it, the Wattson plaintiffs will submit the plan for consideration by the Special Redistricting Panel appointed earlier this year by Chief Justice Lorie Gildea. The Panel is empowered to create new congressional and legislative district boundaries if the Legislature and the Governor have not completed their redistricting duties by the statutory deadline of February 15, 2022.

“Using the legislative plan adopted by the Special Redistricting Panel in 2012 as the point of departure, we provide an example to the current Panel of a method for creating a new plan that makes those changes necessary to conform the existing plan to all constitutional and statutory requirements," said Peter S. Wattson, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.

As has been traditional with court-drawn plans in Minnesota, both the proposed Senate and House plans have a maximum population deviation of 2% or less from the ideal district population. The proposal improves on traditional plans in other ways.

“We demonstrate a path to ensure that a legislative plan can enable the election of a new legislature in 2022 and future years that reflects the votes cast for the legislature statewide,” Wattson said.

"We believe that this proposal makes improvements in the legislative plan to address issues that have arisen in the state and nation in the years since adoption of the current redistricting plan," said Michelle Witte, executive director for the League of Women Voters of Minnesota, a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit. "Our proposal to the Panel illustrates one way it is possible to create greater opportunities for traditionally under-represented voters to have a fair chance to elect members of their choice."

Nine Senate districts and 18 House districts would have a minority voter population of 30% or more. All these minority-opportunity districts are located in the metropolitan area.

Both the Senate and House plans proposed by the Wattson plaintiffs divide fewer cities than the Panel’s plans of 2012. The Senate plan is composed of whole precincts. The Panel’s 2012 plan split 98 precincts. The House plan splits 25 precincts. The Panel’s 2012 plan split 242. Using whole precincts makes the plans barely less compact than the current plans.

The proposed Senate plan splits one fewer American Indian reservation than the current plan; the House plan splits two fewer.

If implemented by the Panel, the Wattson plaintiffs’ proposed legislative plan would result in pairing 10 members of the Senate and 47 members of the House, if all incumbents were to seek reelection. Five new Senate districts and 24 new House districts would have no incumbent under this proposal. Avoiding incumbent pairs was among the least concerns of the Wattson plaintiffs.

The 2020 Census shows that the Senate districts in northern Minnesota are significantly underpopulated and need to grow in area to add population to meet constitutional requirements. Rather than keep the same three senate districts that currently span the state on the northern border, the proposed Senate plan drops one.

Maps of the proposed Senate and House plans can be viewed on the League of Women Voters website: https://www.lwvmn.org/redistricting-2021. An explanation of all the Senate district changes is also available at that webpage. Members of the public are strongly encouraged to use that webpage to submit comments on them.

In response to public comments, and the Panel’s coming order establishing districting principles, the Wattson plaintiffs may revise the plan before presenting it to the Panel by December 7.

The new legislative district boundaries adopted by the Special Redistricting Panel will be used for the 2022 state primary on August 9.