Sent to the Janesville Gazette

On April 7, the voters of Rock County can send a message to our legislators to end partisan gerrymandering by voting YES on the advisory referendum that asks: “Should the Wisconsin legislature create a nonpartisan procedure for the preparation of legislative and congressional district plans and maps?” 

Since the 1970s the League of Women Voters (LWV) has advocated for independent nonpartisan commissions to redraw voting maps after each US Census. The League has held this position through periods when each party has been in power. Fair voting maps is not a partisan issue. 

In Wisconsin, the only remedies to partisan gerrymandering depend on action by the Wisconsin legislature. Currently, there are bills in the Wisconsin legislature, AB 303 and SB 288, that could do this. 

Therefore, in addition to voting YES on the Fair Maps referendum in April, write or call the members of the legislative committees who need to bring these bills to the floor for debate and a vote. 

On Saturday, guests at our local LWV Centennial Luncheon engaged in a Day of Action and wrote 200 postcard messages to the members of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Technology and Consumer Protection and the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections. (Google the names of these committees to find contact information for the members.)

You can advocate for Fair Maps, too. Democracy is not a spectator sport. 

Contact the League of Women Voters of Janesville through our website www.lwvjvl.org for more information.  

Linda Reinhardt
President, League of Women Voters of Janesville