Redistricting: Tribes fight for an equal voice
…But proving that such [gerrymandering] moves violate the Voting Rights Act requires, among other things, demonstrating that a minority group is large enough to form a district.
“That sort of standard shuts small communities completely out of political power,” said Colin Cole, policy director at More Equitable Democracy, which advocates for electoral system reforms that increase racial equity…
As the Yakama Nation’s legislative liaison, the late Mathew Tomaskin worked to ensure that tribal members were counted in the 2010 and 2020 censuses and advocated for the Nation to be unified into one district. Tomaskin died in September before the redistricting process was complete.
“There’s real people’s lives that matter and injustices that, when they take too long to be resolved, mean that some people will never get that justice,” said Kamau Chege, managing director of Washington Census Alliance. “Matt Tomaskin will never get that.” But the tribe will. The Yakama Reservation was unified into one legislative and one congressional district on the approved maps…
