Arizona Redistricting Committee Approves Draft Maps

A bipartisan panel created to draw the Arizona’s congressional and legislative districts for the next decade has approved the draft maps. The approval move moves the process into the final phase.

The next step for the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission will consist of a 30-day public comment period. Following that phase, the commission will meet to finalize new boundaries for the state’s nine congressional and 30 legislative districts.

The AIRC five-member panel consists of Democrats Derrick Watchman and Shereen Lerner, Republicans Douglas York and David Mehl, and an independent chair who was selected by the partisan members, Chandler psychologist Erika Neuberg.

Those interested in reviewing the proposed versions of maps and other information about the redistricting process can visit the AIRC website. It is important to note these are proposed boundaries and could still change before the final versions are adopted.

The commission will schedule public hearings across the state, where the residents will have the opportunity to participate in person or remotely. The hearing dates and locations will be posted at online when they are finalized.

The process began in September with the formation of grid maps of equal populations as a starting point. The next phase consisted of adjusting the boundaries based on items mandated by the Arizona Constitution.

Phase three involved the commission meeting publicly nine days in October where deliberations occurred over more than seven series of congressional maps and 10 series of legislative maps before landing on the approved drafts.

The committee plans to complete the final phase in December.

The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission was created to redraw boundaries every 10 years, in conjunction with the U.S. Census, when voters passed Proposition 106 in a 2000 initiative. Prior to this process, it was the job of the state Legislatures.