Official Response on Partisan Gerrymandering

As an organization committed to ethical government, MWEG opposes gerrymandering under any and all circumstances. Our position on this issue has been consistent, and it is deeply rooted in our nonpartisanship. Partisan gerrymandering causes harm to individual Americans and to our democracy as a whole. Gerrymandering enables elected officials to choose their voters and ensure their own victory while retaining the pretense of fair elections. It is antithetical to representative government.

Recent attempts at mid-decade gerrymandering represent a dramatic and deeply harmful escalation of this tactic. Several political leaders are now openly and unapologetically seeking to disenfranchise all voters in their states not aligned with the party in power, leaving millions of Americans without representation or recourse. Democracy cannot be preserved by utilizing a tactic that undermines representation, and we cannot correct an injustice by expanding it. Other pathways are open to us — currently, leaders from both parties are considering proposals that would ban gerrymandering of congressional districts nationwide. As citizens, we can and should express our support for these measures.

MWEG and our members continue to work to retain a democratic and constitutional system of government in which every voter can exercise their agency and participate meaningfully in selecting their representatives. We believe the best response to corrupt processes is more citizen involvement, not less.