Frequently Asked Questions

Where such entities have districts, they also have their own processes in their charters or bylaws.

Competitiveness means that voting blocs, including partisan and non-affiliated voters, must be substantially and similarly able to translate their popular support into representation in an elected body and that such representation is substantially and similarly reflective of shifts in the electorate’s preferences.

Yes, some districts in eastern Oregon will likely always be Republican and some districts in Portland will likely always be Democratic; the competition in these districts will come in primary elections. However, other areas in the Willamette Valley and perhaps on the Pacific coast could have more fair and competitive districts.

Money is always budgeted by the legislature to perform redistricting. For the first implementation of the redistricting commission proposal, the legislature’s budgeted redistricting funds would be reallocated to the commission. For later decades, the legislature would be required to budget the necessary funds.

Contributions to political action committees are not tax-deductible. However, Oregon offers an income tax credit to Oregon tax filers who contribute to qualifying state, federal or local political campaigns. The total credit is limited to $100 on a joint return or $50 on a single or separate return. Please see Oregon Secretary of State for details.

Whomever now has the power to redistrict the state congressional and legislative districts will be unlikely to want to give up that power. However, gerrymandering is a process issue, a double-edged sword, and any dominant political party could unfairly use it. In the long run, everyone will benefit from a fair, unbiased and transparent redistricting process.

A continually developing and growing broad, diverse coalition has come together now from all party affiliations, income levels, backgrounds, identities, and all corners of Oregon to rally for equal, fair and transparent representation at the state and congressional level. We represent hundreds of thousands of Oregonians who believe we deserve the best possible representative government produced through a fair, unbiased and transparent process.

Dennis Richardson, the late Secretary of State, organized a “Redistricting Reform Task Force” in 2017. It was composed of representatives from all major and most minor political parties and several nonpartisan groups. Many of the Coalition’s leadership served on that Task Force. That Task Force produced a report, a draft bill based on the California statute, and other materials. The People Not Politicians Coalition has used elements from the original draft in the creation of the new measure. The current Secretary of State is not involved with this campaign.

The short answer is that computers are not that smart (yet) and require software written by humans to do their work. A computer could perhaps handle one or two concrete criteria such as equal population and contiguous areas; however, computers cannot handle more subjective criteria such as communities of interest and competitiveness. Redistricting is inherently a political process and requires humans to use judgement in making such subjective decisions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) computer systems require training using thousands of good examples; we have only a handful of good redistricting examples.

Gerrymandering is when elected or appointed officials in charge of redistricting reconfigure districts to favor a political party, incumbent, or candidate. Often the purpose of gerrymandering is to also create noncompetitive races or “safe districts” where districts are drawn to give one party or interest a clear advantage and secure incumbency.

There are 3 common types of gerrymandering:

Partisan: Where parties who are in control of redrawing the districts, do so in a way that solidifies or even increases the number of seats of their party in the legislature or congress.

Bipartisan: Where typically both parties are equally represented in the decision-making process and negotiate or trade in order for each party to have safer districts to protect their respective interests or incumbents.

Racial: Refers to a process in which district lines are drawn to prevent racial minorities from electing their preferred candidates.

There are two ways that gerrymandering is often implemented with the help of recent computer technology:

Cracking: Spreads opposition voters across districts comfortably favoring the gerrymandering party, wasting opposition party votes in districts that their party can’t possibly win.

Packing: Places as many opposition party supporters into as few districts as possible such that the opposition wins as few seats as possible.
Notice that none of these gerrymandering techniques says anything about the shape of the district boundaries. Although a miss-shaped district is often an indicator of gerrymandering, it is the voters in a district, not its shape, that determines gerrymandering. It is possible to have well shaped districts that are still gerrymandered.

We live in a state where partisan elected officials may be tempted to distort the districts they represent for their personal or partisan advantage. Whenever partisan elected officials are in charge of redistricting, we allow a system where gerrymandering can take priority over fair representation. According to the 2012 City Club of Portland study report, every attempt by the legislature to redistrict the state between 1910 and 2010 has failed in some way. Oregon often has had both bipartisan and partisan examples of gerrymandering.

If you have other questions or would like more information, please contact the coalition by email at info@peoplenotpoliticiansoregon.com. 

Your support will make a big difference and there are a lot of ways you can be involved. To start, you can donate to the effort and sign up to be part of our grassroots team of volunteers here.