WA Supreme Court Declines To Redraw Redistricting Maps

SEATTLE — Another surprise in the long and convoluted redistricting saga came Friday, when the Washington State Supreme Court announced that it would not redraw the state's redistricting map.

The decision, according to the court, means that the state will use the redistricting maps previously submitted by the Washington State Redistricting Commission, even though those maps were not formally adopted in time for the Nov. 15 deadline.

A tumultuous timeline

The announcement appears to mark an end to an especially messy redistricting saga, which began with the 2020 census. Four state commissioners, two appointed by each political party, plus Commission Chair Sarah Augustine, had been tasked with redrawing the state's congressional and legislative districts to match the new demographics outlined in the census.

However, the commissioners had a difficult time coming to a consensus — early in the process, the commission's Democrats and Republicans accused the other party other of trying to gerrymander the state to benefit their own political parties. At another point, analysis indicated that the commission's proposed maps may have violated the federal Voting Rights Act.

Trouble continued up until Nov. 15 when, despite working through the night to complete their task, the commission could not finalize their maps in time for the midnight deadline. The commission did reach a last-minute agreement through private negotiation, outside of public view, but just barely missed the mark: according to a sworn deposition from Augustine, the commission adopted a redistricting plan at 12:00:08 on Nov. 16, eight seconds too late.

After failing to make the deadline, the task of redrawing the legislative maps was handed to the Washington State Supreme Court. The commission also sent their approved maps to the court for consideration, though the court was under no legal obligation to use them.

The ruling

According to the Supreme Court's order on the issue, their decision to default back to the State Redistricting Commission's plan was based primarily on two factors:

• The belief that further deliberation from the court would mean "a timely redistricting plan would be impeded, not advanced" by rejecting the commission's prior work.
• The above-mentioned sworn deposition from Chair Sarah Augustine, who said that the congressional redistricting plan and legislative redistricting plan were both approved before midnight, but not formally adopted until after deadline.

"The court accepts the facts attested to by the chair of the Commission as accurate," the order reads. "After reviewing the submissions and considering the constitutional and statutory framework as a whole, we conclude it is not necessary for the court to assume responsibility for adoption of redistricting maps under the present circumstances. By voting to approve congressional and legislative redistricting plans before the end of the day on November 15, 2021, the Commission complied with its obligation."

The maps

Below are the two maps approved by the Washington State Redistricting Commission, which now appear poised to become the official redistricting maps:

More information on the maps, including interactive dashboards showing how the state has been redistricted, can be found on the Washington State Redistricting Commission's website.