Scored Maps from the Redistricting Report Card

Related content

Communities of Interest

Check out Communities of Interest collected in this state on Representable

Learn about Communities of Interest in this state

Census-related Redistricting Timeline Delays

Process

State Legislative Districts: Bipartisan Commissions

In 2021, according to the process implemented by Amendment 3, Missouri's state legislative districts will be drawn by two bipartisan redistricting commissions, whose members are nominated by the state party committees and appointed by the Governor.

Congressional Districts: State Legislature

The state's congressional districts will be drawn by the Legislature by ordinary statute, and will be subject to the Governor's veto.

Criteria

In addition to the federal requirements of one person, one vote and the Voting Rights Act, Missouri’s state constitution (Art. III §§ 3(c), 7) requires that state legislative districts be compact, contiguous, preserve political subdivisions, promote partisan fairness and competitiveness, and do not intentionally favor an incumbent, party, or candidate for office. For congressional districts, the state constitution (Art. III § 45) requires that they be compact and contiguous.

Public Input

Per the state constitution (Art. III §§ 3(3), 7), the redistricting commission must hold at least three public hearings to gather testimony and objections to the proposed map. Missouri’s state statutes (§ 127.030) further requires the establishment of a “Redistricting Public Comment Portal,” a website that facilitates the submission of public comments and maps.

Issues

Rollback of Reform

Voters approved Amendment 3, which rolls back protections put in place by the Clean Missouri Amendment in 2018. 

• Amendment 3 gets rid of the position of nonpartisan state demographer. Instead, it gives full redistricting power to the two politician commissions.
• The amendment lists partisan fairness and competitiveness at the bottom of the constitutional redistricting criteria, which are ranked in order of priority. In doing so, it also allows the two commissions to draw maps up to a 15% efficiency gap, which represents a strong partisan bias.
• The amendment includes language that could allow redistricting to be carried out on the basis of citizen voting-age population rather than total population, which would likely have a disproportionately negative impact on communities of color.

Actions

In 2021, participate in the public input process.

• Obtain Missouri redistricting data from OpenPrecincts.
• Start to plan out what defines your community – whether it’s a shared economic interest, school districts, or other social or other cultural, historical, or economic interests – and how that can be represented on a map. This will come in handy once the commissions and demographer start collecting feedback.
• Use software tools such as Dave's Redistricting App and Districtr to draw district maps showing either (a) what a fair map would look like, or (b) where the community you believe should be better represented is located.

Contacts

Clean Missouri

League of Women Voters of Metro St. Louis

Sources

All About Redistricting

NCSL

Ballotpedia

Missouri Office of Administration