Tell Your Legislators: Support H.3863
June 10, 2021
We need your help.
Right now, legislators on Beacon Hill are considering a policy of paramount importance: H.3863 - An Act Relative to Reprecincting. It's crucial that Beacon Hill pass this policy as swiftly as possible.
Why? Due to delays caused by the COVID19 pandemic and the previous U.S. presidential administration, Massachusetts is set to receive its population data from the U.S. Census Bureau five to six months later than usual. As a result, the state will have even less time than normal to complete key processes like redistricting and reprecincting. This impacts what state representative, state senate, Governor's Council, and Congressional districts will look like.
H.3863 will help address this crisis by ensuring that the state has the necessary means to complete the redistricting and reprecincting processes in a timely manner. It will mandate the state perform redistricting before reprecincting, which would be a first for Massachusetts, but is actually the norm across the country. It would allow the state to create political districts using census blocks: the most nuanced, accurate means of calculating population. This would further empower the state to create majority Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and immigrant districts, making our democracy even more accessible and inclusive.
There's no time to waste: tell your state representative and state senator to support H.3863 NOW! This reform will ensure the state has the means to make this redistricting process the most empowering one yet. It will also set the standard for how the state should conduct redistricting moving forward.
- All of us at MassVOTE
The use of accurate census data and clear calculation methods is an important part of making redistricting fair and representative. It’s interesting how different types of calculators, from population analysis tools to a body type calc, can depend on accurate measurements and reliable data.