Lawmakers on Utah’s new redistricting committee will meet Monday morning at 9 a.m. to discuss a handful of newly drawn congressional map proposals. Here’s how to participate.
Utah lawmakers released five options for new congressional maps ahead of a meeting scheduled for Monday morning, part of a court-ordered overhaul of the state’s four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Legislature’s redistricting commission is scheduled to hold its first meeting Monday morning at 9 a.m. in Room 120 of the Utah Senate building. It will also be available via a live stream.
The lawmakers, based on a recent court order, have until September 25 to adopt the committee’s draft of a new map, which will then have 10 days of public comment before it receives a vote during a special legislative session. It then must be submitted to the court for approval.
Lawmakers are drawing new congressional boundaries after Judge Dianna Gibson ruled last month that the Legislature should not have been allowed — based on a Utah Supreme Court ruling last year — to discard the redistricting standards created in 2018’s Proposition 4.
With the proposition reinstated, Gibson ruled, the maps that have been in place since the 2022 election no longer meet the initiative’s requirements and are prohibited from being used in the 2026 election.
Better Boundaries, the group that pushed the 2018 initiative, has not taken a position on any of the five maps released by the Legislature so far.
But the group’s executive director, Elizabeth Rasmussen, said they are “encouraged that the Legislature is moving this process forward and urge Utahns to review the maps and take part in the public hearings this week.”
“Public participation keeps this process true to the principle that voters should choose their politicians, not the other way around,” she said.
The chief difference between the five maps released so far and the existing congressional boundaries is that Salt Lake County, where many of Utah’s Democrats reside, is less divided. The Legislature’s maps adopted in 2021 split the county into four different congressional districts.
While Salt Lake County has too many people to fit into one district, none of the five proposed maps cut Salt Lake County more than once.
Three of the maps create an east-west divide of the county, pairing it with districts in rural counties. Option D creates more of a north-south split in Salt Lake County, creating a compact District 4 covering southern Salt Lake County and northern Utah County.
Option E creates a district that combines the eastern portion of Salt Lake County with Davis County.
To ensure that country clerks are prepared for next year’s midterm elections, and so candidates can register in time, the state’s top elections official, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, said the new maps will need to be in place by November 10.
The ten-member redistricting committee includes: Co-chairs Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, and Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Riverton; Sens. Lincoln Fillmore, Don Ipson, Mike McKell and Luz Escamilla (the sole Senate Democrat); and Reps. Walt Brooks, Stephanie Gricius, Calvin Roberts and Rep. Doug Owens (the only House Democrat).
See the five proposed congressional maps — or even leave a comment on the maps — here:
Source: Utah News
