http://www.texastribune.org/texas-redistricting/redistricting/redistricting-is-there-a-better-way/Tuesday's contentious debate on the state Senate floor over a proposed Congressional redistricting map, which passed unsurprisingly on a party line vote, was just a hint of why graduate students at Texas A&M University — and even some lawmakers — are studying alternative ways to handle the process.
“As a citizen, I’d say that people don’t believe in the redistricting process. It doesn’t feel legitimate,” said Craig Welkener, who graduated this spring from A&M with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a Master of Public Service and Administration degree.
Before graduating, Welkener took on a project along with fellow graduate students Nicolas Norboge and Brady Olsen in which they sought to draw their own Congressional redistricting maps. They did not take into consideration where the current incumbents resided or how to best keep one party in power, however. The driving force behind their map — and the title of their report — was “objectivity.”
“It would restore a sense that our process is fair — that the American political process is a good way to do government,” said Welkener of trying to bring a heightened sense of objectivity to our political mapmaking process. “I think we’ve kind of lost that.”
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